tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71761994680579085642017-10-23T15:52:57.924-05:00Across The Iron RoadDarcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-80780563375446375352013-07-20T21:04:00.003-05:002013-07-21T12:49:07.254-05:00Five Minute CreationsMaking stuff- is there anything more fulfilling? I like working on the fly with not much planning and lots of improvisation. There's something thrilling about making it all work from the contents of an old junk basket and a glue gun.<br /><br />Alex peeled a water bottle label off and stuck it around his wrist, then got excited, talking about how he wanted to make "stuff" to go on it, stuff he could use, like wires and buttons and screens. Dude dreams big, and so after telling him how cool I thought that was, I carefully mentioned that although we could do something like that, the wires and buttons and screens wouldn't actually, yknow, be a functional high tech device. He grinned and rolled his eyes at me (ach! time, you speedy bitch, where did my babies go?) and told me that it would just be an awesome toy for imaginary games. Rad. Although where was that perspective when he was 2.5 and I built him a little car out of balsa wood and wheels and he rended his clothes in fury at the lack of a tiny perfect engine? Whatever, this new development is all good, I won't question it anymore. Dude wants to Make Stuff, and I love it!<br /><br />So we made these:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aC1X9TpsYsM/Ues_ZUTeRAI/AAAAAAAABmM/z70Ca6BL7R0/s1600/power+wristband.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aC1X9TpsYsM/Ues_ZUTeRAI/AAAAAAAABmM/z70Ca6BL7R0/s1600/power+wristband.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Scraps of felt (leftover from Halloween costumes), mini-LEDs and coin batteries (leftover from the wedding), a couple of glass beads, all glued together. And now we have Power Wristbands! Five minutes of &nbsp;making, five minutes of talking about electrical circuits while I glued, and endless exploration of the big beautiful world. Hell yeah!</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QtMEv3izbj8/Ues_bf2JbOI/AAAAAAAABmU/8XUOcLz01ao/s1600/exploring+with+the+power+wristband.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QtMEv3izbj8/Ues_bf2JbOI/AAAAAAAABmU/8XUOcLz01ao/s1600/exploring+with+the+power+wristband.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div><br />Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-1987184447220810382013-01-21T20:45:00.000-06:002013-01-21T20:47:56.254-06:00"I Have A Dream" ProjectMy mother was at the I Have &nbsp;A Dream speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in August of 1963. She was 18 and four months pregnant with my older brother.<br /><br />One of her early memories from when she was a child was from when my grandfather, a fierce and devoted union leader, took her and my uncle with him to walk to union meetings because he thought he was less likely to be shot if he was with his children. There had been threats.<br /><br />When my brother was about five, and my older sister a young toddler, my mother took them to a peaceful protest at People's Park in Berkeley, CA. Governor Reagan did not like those hippies and their Park. My brother can remember trying to run from the tear gas on his little legs, while my mother and her friend, both of them carrying a younger child, each held one of Dylan's hands and lifted him off the ground to flee.<br /><br />As a young teen, I protested the first Gulf War, and as a young adult I protested the next Gulf War. In my thirties I took my children to sing union songs at the Madison capitol as corrupt politicians tore away at everything my grandfather worked for his whole life. I hope that I will not being protesting another Gulf War in my middle age, but I have my doubts.<br /><br />Protest and social activism are a part of who I am, a part of my moral fiber. I find my faith and devotion in the power of people working for positive change.<br /><br />I want my kids to grow up knowing that faith. I want them to know that people have that sort of power, and that great evils can be stood up to, can be fought with words and action, and that there is hope.<br /><br />My kids and I read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Martins-Big-Words-Martin-Luther/dp/1423106350/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1358821525&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=martin%27s+big+words" target="_blank">Martin's Big Words</a>&nbsp;today. We had read it before and Anya sobbed inconsolably when it described his death. She requested that we not read the end today, and I struggled before closing the book early but did talk to them about his death being an important part of his story.<br /><br />After that we did a project like <a href="http://www.teachpreschool.org/2011/01/learning-about-martin-luther-king-jr-in-preschool/" target="_blank">this</a>. I read part of MLK's speech to them, and we talked about how he imagined a way that the world could be better, and then as he grew up he acted on his dream and was able to make the world a better place. I asked them to think of ways that they could&nbsp;imagine&nbsp;the world as a better place while we created a sky collage out of tissue paper and&nbsp;construction&nbsp;paper.<br /><br />I cut out clouds, and asked each kid to tell me what their dream was. It was tempting to prompt, since I was a bit worried I might end up with something like, "I have a dream that kids can have treats all the time, even before dinner when cruel mothers usually refuse." BUT I am so glad I didn't because I love knowing their unadulterated dreams.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cKh1bHWJ-0Q/UP36dUcdzRI/AAAAAAAAA1Q/wRynJQeOP-E/s1600/mlk+projects.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cKh1bHWJ-0Q/UP36dUcdzRI/AAAAAAAAA1Q/wRynJQeOP-E/s1600/mlk+projects.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anya initially &nbsp;said that her dream was "that people would plant more plants. To Eat. Because they are yummy." Then she switched to "people being nice to each other." And finally decided on "that everyone will stop throwing trash on the ground."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Alex first said that he hoped that people would stop shooting animals, but then told me that he hoped that people would stop shooting everything. Surprising coming from a kid who loves gunplay who is growing up in a place where hunting season is practically a holiday. Must be some of the California hippie rubbing off on him!</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FSHIWtpS7A0/UP36df1U9OI/AAAAAAAAA1U/IrCSMPeT5cY/s1600/mlk+project+alex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FSHIWtpS7A0/UP36df1U9OI/AAAAAAAAA1U/IrCSMPeT5cY/s1600/mlk+project+alex.jpg" height="320" width="301" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-90206159599432289642012-06-20T15:50:00.001-05:002012-06-20T15:50:57.940-05:00How Awesome is Measuring?How we describe the world is incredibly important. This has been a recurring theme for me in everything from&nbsp;therapeutic&nbsp;psychology (where how we describe our processes and history becomes an integral part of how we experience our lives) to my&nbsp;tempestuous love&nbsp;affair&nbsp;with Science (the procedure for hypothesis testing demands precise&nbsp;measurement, and yet how we define our variable and even the act of observing our variables may alter their measurement. Oh Science, you magnificent tease!).<br /><br />For the preschool set, measurement is important because it integrates a bunch of early math components, and yet it is easy enough for them to do on their own, and is one of those things, like knock-knock jokes, that they seem to happily incorporate into their everyday life so frequently you might wish you had never handed them a ruler. There's counting, obviously, but also the thrills of comparing which helps them understand the importance of the ordinal/relational quality of numbers. The other thing about measuring is that it is so useful in the sort&nbsp;of&nbsp;simple experiments which we do in investigative learning. I've showed them how to measure before, used it in some of our exploratory play, but I had never just talked about measurement in general. And&nbsp;since&nbsp;I love nothing more than a meta investigation, I decided to get them going exploring the idea of precise ways to describe their world.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wGuOuuEtGCE/T-IlNHbSJcI/AAAAAAAAAwU/5OP9wPBzjQY/s1600/measuring+project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wGuOuuEtGCE/T-IlNHbSJcI/AAAAAAAAAwU/5OP9wPBzjQY/s320/measuring+project.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Footwear Measurement is vital.</td></tr></tbody></table><u><b>Materials</b></u>:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/paper_rulers/UnstableURL/ruler_foot.pdf" target="_blank">Printable Rulers</a>, cut out<br />half sheets of paper folded and stapled to make observation books<br />pens/crayons<br />stuff to measure!<br /><br /><br /><b><u>Methods:</u></b><br /><b><u><br /></u></b><br />1. I printed and cut out the rulers- I thought about trying to dig out some wooden rulers, but these were nice because the kids could wrap them around objects.<br /><br />2. I made them each a book to write down their observations. I've been trying to get them interested in keeping a science journal, but so far they seem to only use them if I make a little mini-book for each project. I hope that this at least will help them get into the habit of recording their observations. Only one kid is ready to start trying to write and sound out words, so I suggested that they draw a picture of the object and write out its measurement in numerals.<br /><br />3. I set them loose!<br /><br /><b><u>Results:</u></b><br /><b><u><br /></u></b><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_8L14Wgl70o/T-IlCOBVQYI/AAAAAAAAAwM/niHQ6QUfgWQ/s1600/measured+tiger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_8L14Wgl70o/T-IlCOBVQYI/AAAAAAAAAwM/niHQ6QUfgWQ/s320/measured+tiger.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby Tiger is 7 inches long- I didn't even need Alex's translation!</td></tr></tbody></table>Alex particularly loved this project, which was especially nice because unlike Anya, he is not terribly interested in practicing how to write numbers. But when it is in the name of science, he was all over it!<br /><br />He was stymied by a box that was longer than his ruler. When I asked him if he could think of ways to measure it, he suggested we cut it up and measure the pieces, but was dismayed at the thought of losing the box in the process. I had to hold my tongue not to bring up Schrodinger's Cat which is a bit much even for me to wrap my head around! But the essence of the problem (precise observation altering the subject) seems similar enough that I was tempted! Eventually I showed him how to mark the spot where the ruler ended, measure the remainder and add the measurements together, but he's not quite there yet in terms of comfort with the idea of addition. He was really excited when I did it, though, and went back to measuring smaller things with even greater enthusiasm.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3QSYBvrO-2A/T-Ik67o14mI/AAAAAAAAAwE/mR1S9YXhwas/s1600/measured+shoe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3QSYBvrO-2A/T-Ik67o14mI/AAAAAAAAAwE/mR1S9YXhwas/s320/measured+shoe.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Anya measured her shoe collection almost exclusively, and measured them in ways I was not expecting, which was cool.<br /><br />She lost interest pretty quickly, but went back to it after she saw Alex still excited ten minutes later.<br /><br />She also suggested that we could start measuring our trees, and came up with some interesting ways that we could do so, involving Luke scaling to the top and dropping down a very long measuring tape. I told we could measure how high he goes in them next time he's pruning.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LpvMF1dkVXI/T-Ikxms3wII/AAAAAAAAAv8/OUEhKKutl-M/s1600/alex+measuring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LpvMF1dkVXI/T-Ikxms3wII/AAAAAAAAAv8/OUEhKKutl-M/s320/alex+measuring.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b><u>Discussion:</u></b><br /><br />After they spent about 45 minutes measuring things, we watched a clip from Sid the Science Kid about measuring, and we talked about why measuring is important. I framed it in terms of hypothesis testing. Recently we had been talking about plants that could continue to grow in water, like green onions after you cut them, and the kids were insistent that they didn't need soil at all and we could plant a water garden. I told them that I thought they would grow more in the soil, and that only certain plants would grow in the water. To show them how measuring could be used to precisely describe the world, I explained that we could try one onion inside and another outside and observe. They both immediately understood that the bigger one would show whether soil or water was best for the plant's growth, but it was only after I mentioned that there might be very little difference that Anya grabbed her ruler and said we could measure the difference to see even a little change.<br /><br />This brought to mind our chicken scratch notes on the kitchen doorway showing the kids' heights over time. We marked their heights again, then measured the amount that each had grown since last year, as well as the difference between them. I showed them how to use the metric and imperial units. I think the idea of comparisons over time and between individuals became real to them during this part,&nbsp;which&nbsp;was awesome. I hope that we will be referencing the stuff we learned today in our projects in the future. I also really want to find a kid friendly scale! More dimensions! More measurement!Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-52112071130180045262012-06-05T17:44:00.000-05:002012-06-05T17:44:49.115-05:00Flower Challenge<a href="http://tinkerlab.com/" target="_blank">Tinkerlab</a> is an awesome blog about fostering creativity and hanging out with kids doing cool stuff. I've come to rely on Rachelle's fun activities and inspiration, as well as enjoying her perspective. This mommyblog thing is a delicate line to walk- how to write passionately about your beliefs and children without coming off as judgmental about other perspectives or styles; how to talk honestly about the good and the bad, the mistakes and the failures; how not to fall into the trap of bloggy narcissism; how to write about the good stuff without causing others to hateread your blog and doubt your words. Tinkerlab is a keeper, walking that line with a grace and an enthusiasm &nbsp;that I find infectious.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TRFgabmWL1Q/T855UDorxlI/AAAAAAAAAsM/xxhWdSLPiU8/s1600/peonie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TRFgabmWL1Q/T855UDorxlI/AAAAAAAAAsM/xxhWdSLPiU8/s320/peonie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>One of the awesome community-building projects she does over there are her <a href="http://tinkerlab.com/challenges/" target="_blank">Creativity Challenges</a>, in which she invites other parents to write and link to creative projects related to the theme of the challenge. Unlike the types of projects I typically blog about, these challenges should be child-driven; that is, that the children should initiate and follow through with their own creativity, rather than participate in an activity that the parent/teacher designs and sets up. I love the idea of child-driven work, and my kids certainly do a ton of it on their own, but I seldom set up "invitations" as many child-driven parents do. I prefer, because of my own temperament and the pressure of working from home with no child care, to do slightly more structured work, activities, and then let them children take it wherever they want. I haven't taken part in the previous challenges partly because I imagined that if I tried just setting them loose on a totally child-driven challenge, that they would go in opposite directions and want me to follow- a pretty common problem in raising twins! But on the way home, as we were talking about flowers and root systems, I decided to go for it and join in on the <a href="http://tinkerlab.com/2012/06/creative-challenge-flowers/" target="_blank">Flower Challenge</a>.<br /><br />I explained the idea behind the challenge, and at first Anya did not want to do it because she thought the word challenge meant it would be a competition. She's not naturally averse to competition, in fact, both of them are so&nbsp;fiercely&nbsp;competitive that any whiff of there being a winner and a loser and there is sure to be a&nbsp;knockdown drag-out fight- Anya has learned that to maintain her awesome relationship with Alex, they need to just stop competing. I wonder if her dad and uncles will ever learn that! But when I re-framed it as a challenge for her mind to think of cool creative fun projects to do with flowers, she got on board. We talked a little about how they could think of learning experiments to do or questions to ask and try to solve about flowers, or they could gather flowers and do something with them, or they could make flowers out of something else. They decided to gather flowers, and Anya wanted to decorate our windows with them, while Alex wanted to attach the flowers to a piece of paper and paint a scene to go with them.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jWHrJqgt52Q/T854z3A3siI/AAAAAAAAAro/zh5gpiDEOEM/s1600/anya+flowers+on+window.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jWHrJqgt52Q/T854z3A3siI/AAAAAAAAAro/zh5gpiDEOEM/s320/anya+flowers+on+window.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>I asked Anya how she would like to attach the flowers to the window- we couldn't use contact paper because the flowers she were quite large, and she first wanted to use glue or starch, as we had with tissue paper window decorations in the past. Eventually she decided on tape, so I got her set up with some packing tape and left her to work on it while I helped Alex get his paint set up.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XH9WsREefes/T854uk8MfQI/AAAAAAAAArg/vTrKZ1RQCPA/s1600/alex+wip.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XH9WsREefes/T854uk8MfQI/AAAAAAAAArg/vTrKZ1RQCPA/s320/alex+wip.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>Alex arranged his plant bits on his paper and started gluing them, then painting in the scene, then gluing, then painting and so on.&nbsp;Alex is a kid who imagines all kinds of wild scenarios and is usually the driving force behind the complex imaginary games they play, and who spends hours designing and taping together robots made from the recycling, and who will dictate ten page stories to me every chance he gets. So I was&nbsp;surprised&nbsp;to see that he decided to create a very naturalistic scene where the bits of plants were representative of whole plants. The only exception is the dandelion puff as a storm cloud, which may have been influenced by me commenting on a similarity the other day. He's been&nbsp;fascinated&nbsp;with rainbows since we saw two different double <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mommafoofoo/7157912861/" target="_blank">rainbows</a> on our drive home from Upper Michigan last week, so he created a sunny and rainy day, but then didn't want to paint a rainbow because he was worried he wouldn't be able to do it without ruining the rest of the picture that he was so pleased with. Kind of a bummer of a feeling, but I didn't want to push him as he seemed to drop it quickly and move on (which is rare for my ruminative son!). I will probably do a more focused project on rainbows, and hope that builds some confidence for painting them.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4a_tBz9gtN8/T854jwExZ_I/AAAAAAAAArU/suKYcmmbhiM/s1600/alex+sunny+and+rainy+day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4a_tBz9gtN8/T854jwExZ_I/AAAAAAAAArU/suKYcmmbhiM/s320/alex+sunny+and+rainy+day.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alex's Sunny and Rainy Day</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VgrZsncpA8Y/T855FVfUuXI/AAAAAAAAAr8/nsTpj-Aw3Ps/s1600/anya+wip+fairy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VgrZsncpA8Y/T855FVfUuXI/AAAAAAAAAr8/nsTpj-Aw3Ps/s320/anya+wip+fairy.jpg" width="320" /></a>Anya came over while Alex was working, and decided that his project looked like more fun, so he gave her some of his collected flowers, and she went out with me to pick some more. She started with a large flat dandelion leaf and immediately declared that it was the grassy hill. This was also surprising, since Anya is often a very literal kid, and I fully expected her to glue the flowers down and paint a vase to hold them. She was playing with a magenta bloom, looking at it from different angles and seemed unsure of what to do next. I asked if it looked like anything and she decided it was a fairy skirt. Once she had that decided, she was eager to go hunt for some petals to be the wings and a round flower to be the head. I let her pick two fresh iris petals, despite the usual picking ban on my favorite flowers, because I knew how perfect they would be as wings- see, I kind of suck at child-driven... I just want to get in there and do it with them! She glued them in herself, and I took myself over to Alex so I wouldn't be tempted to interfere with her vision for the fairy.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E-rZP-4kjq0/T855N9Hhn2I/AAAAAAAAAsE/sZAxLAaEV7s/s1600/fairy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E-rZP-4kjq0/T855N9Hhn2I/AAAAAAAAAsE/sZAxLAaEV7s/s320/fairy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fairy Seeing Flowers She's Never Seen Before by Anya</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />It ended up being a really fun project, and I love it when my assumptions about the kids are challenged!<br /><br /><br /><br />Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-1132598700067594622012-06-04T14:58:00.001-05:002012-06-04T15:15:35.363-05:00Princess FeetA good friend introduced me to <a href="http://www.alignedandwell.com/index.php?option=com_wordpress&amp;Itemid=223" target="_blank">Katy Bowman's work on biomechanics and body alignment</a> a couple of months ago, and I've found her work to be fascinating and incredibly helpful, not just for my own issues, but as a healthcare provider. Many of her posts on the importance of healthy body alignment and the effects of one part on the entire system compliment my own interest in the importance of &nbsp;breathing technique and body position in working with issues such as pain, anxiety and decreased oxygenation, especially during recovery and physiological stress.<br /><br />One of the subjects which Bowman talks about frequently is the importance of walking, squatting and the cascade of problems which positive heeled shoes can cause. I was never a big fan of heels, and have been carefully considering the angle of my shoes ever since. But my fashion sense has always been decidedly...unfashionable. I cannot say the same for Anya, and preschool girls have some very particular ideas about what to wear.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iOuRLKrrOnc/T8zqaWKIIcI/AAAAAAAAAqs/8gxx9ILPjaA/s1600/princess+feet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iOuRLKrrOnc/T8zqaWKIIcI/AAAAAAAAAqs/8gxx9ILPjaA/s320/princess+feet.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Princess Years</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Yesterday morning, my 4-year old daughter wobbled into the room wearing a princess tutu, a princess tiara and one of the 6 pairs of cheap plastic princess heels she was given for Christmas last year. I had thought she forgot about them when I buried them in the costume box,&nbsp;quarantining&nbsp;them from the real shoes. I have socio-political issues with girls and princess culture. My kids know that I hate princesses, know that I dislike that princesses rarely save themselves in stories, are considered special simply by the circumstances of their birth or because of their beauty. When I explained the problems of a monarchy vs. a democracy, Anya was the first to chime in that the people should decide who the leaders are. And yet. The princess culture in the preschool set is overwhelming, infectious, and all-consuming. The fixation with prettiness is problematic but workable; the conflation of "pretty" and "fancy" with "princess", and "princess" with the requirement of <i><b><u>pretty above all else!!!1!</u></b></i>- that is the spiral of death by pink for me.<br /><br />When Anya wobbled in in that outfit, all smiles and pride in how pretty she was, I knew I had to pick my battle; all out War, Mom vs Princess was asking for an epic loss. I told her how beautiful the dress was, how impressed I was that she had created a whole costume for herself, and how&nbsp;beautiful&nbsp;she was when she was pretending to be a princess AND when she was being regular Anya. She asked what I thought of the shoes. I told her that I didn't like high heel shoes because the heels were no good for running and no good for the muscles, <a href="http://iron-road.blogspot.com/2011/10/bones-and-bit-of-eyes.html" target="_blank">bones</a> and the whole body.<br /><br />She twirled for me a couple of times, then wobbled her way out.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CJM46BSEJ3Y/T8zqvWG-WII/AAAAAAAAArA/uBA6xX-R2PU/s1600/princesses+should+be+able+to+run.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CJM46BSEJ3Y/T8zqvWG-WII/AAAAAAAAArA/uBA6xX-R2PU/s320/princesses+should+be+able+to+run.jpg" width="244" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Be free!</td></tr></tbody></table>A minute later she wobbled back in and said, "Why are my pretty shoes not good for my body?" I know what to do with that kind of soft pitch! I leapt up and showed her where her <a href="http://www.alignedandwell.com/?p=3280&amp;option=com_wordpress&amp;Itemid=223" target="_blank">hamstrings</a> are, showed her how to feel them stretch, pointed out where they attached to the skeleton- we did a great activity using a little movable guy with rubber bands attached to his bones to represent muscles and how they move bone, which I'm just realizing I never blogged about- and she was fascinated. Then we lay down and held up our legs to look at <a href="http://www.alignedandwell.com/?p=4239&amp;option=com_wordpress&amp;Itemid=223" target="_blank">the angle of our feet</a> and how a pointed toe shortened the length of our hamstrings. I talked to her about how walking like that and never stretching them out would make the muscles get tighter and shorter, till it was so bad that our feet couldn't even get into a neutral position without some effort on the part of our muscles. And, by the way, our lesson on <a href="http://iron-road.blogspot.com/2012/04/simple-machine-for-preschoolers.html" target="_blank">simple machines</a> has totally come in handy- the kids now often differentiate between things that take work from our muscles and things that don't!<br /><br />Next, I did some silly poses to try to show her how the whole body has to compensate for the forward lean of the body standing on heels. Katy Bowman's illustrations are better than my clowning around, but when your audience is 4, a little mama slapstick goes a long way towards remembering a complex lesson!<br /><br />Anya wobbled back out to the living room, then returned, without the heels and said, in the most woeful voice ever, "But how can I have princess shoes if they are bad for my body?" I took her out to examine her shoe collection and tried to push the hot pink, turquoise glittered light up sneakers as sufficiently fancy for a princess. Anya was not impressed.<br /><br />Then I had an awesome idea.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OOoBPmSfEtc/T8zqRcuvIhI/AAAAAAAAAqk/luQrq0tzdj0/s1600/princess+feet+alone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OOoBPmSfEtc/T8zqRcuvIhI/AAAAAAAAAqk/luQrq0tzdj0/s320/princess+feet+alone.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Princess Feet</td></tr></tbody></table><br />"I think that princess FEET are even cooler than princess shoes, don't you?" She looked doubtfully at her feet. "I can make your feet extra fancy and special!"<br /><br />I collected up red, pink and purple markers, a washable glue stick, gold glitter, and two colors of nail polish. I painted her nails and drew suns, hearts, flowers and swirls all over the tops of her feet, then rubbed some glue stick over the top and went to town with the glitter. She was beyond thrilled.<br /><br />We went outside to test out her new princess feet. It turns out that not only are princess feet cool-looking and fun to create, but you can run in them way better than in high heeled princess shoes.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />&nbsp;We also did some careful scientific tests of climbing, playing, skipping and hammock pushing. Princess feet outshone princess high heels in all the categories!<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dvp7dEZ5Rso/T8zqlKHTEqI/AAAAAAAAAq0/YtEOADNru0g/s1600/princesses+need+to+be+aligned.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dvp7dEZ5Rso/T8zqlKHTEqI/AAAAAAAAAq0/YtEOADNru0g/s320/princesses+need+to+be+aligned.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Yucky!"</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-89301453832969117662012-04-18T11:19:00.000-05:002012-04-18T11:19:17.827-05:00Marbling Paper<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4MumyjkLSJY/T47oDy9W7CI/AAAAAAAAAeM/n6ddoJzgIyk/s1600/paper+marbling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4MumyjkLSJY/T47oDy9W7CI/AAAAAAAAAeM/n6ddoJzgIyk/s320/paper+marbling.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I love the look of marbled paper like <a href="http://www.suminagashi.com/" target="_blank">Suminagashi</a>, but have been put off by the unknown chemicals and hassle of getting <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Marbling-Kit-Japanese-Suminagashi/dp/B003W2PX8M/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1334761777&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">pre-made kits</a>- I was especially worried that a kit would turn out to be too difficult for the kids.<br /><br />Then I saw <a href="http://innerchildfun.com/2009/05/5-friday-paper-marbling-this-is-awesome.html" target="_blank">this post on Inner Child Fun</a>, about how to do paper marbling using just laundry starch and acrylic paints!<br /><br />I have tons of old acrylics laying around, so all I needed to buy was a $2 bottle of starch, which is useful for so many projects we do anyway.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ceRFpmQhvU8/T47nqDVW36I/AAAAAAAAAd0/SxhVm5catvI/s1600/marbling+anya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ceRFpmQhvU8/T47nqDVW36I/AAAAAAAAAd0/SxhVm5catvI/s200/marbling+anya.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />I set each kid up with a small, flat-bottomed plastic container and poured in about 1/2-1" of starch. Then each kid chose their colors, and I let them drip the paint right into the starch. Then they used bamboo skewers to swirl the paint and starch. We lay cut pieces of watercolor paper on the marbling solution, then lifted them up and put them in a large container of freshwater, where the&nbsp;starch&nbsp;washed off, leaving the paint in beautiful patterns. We set them to dry on an&nbsp;old sheet.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Some things we learned:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8TaolT8twR4/T47nifE9EfI/AAAAAAAAAds/mBzseAyQuYg/s1600/alex+marbling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8TaolT8twR4/T47nifE9EfI/AAAAAAAAAds/mBzseAyQuYg/s200/alex+marbling.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><ul><li>&nbsp;The really old (~18 years old!) ones had often gotten too dry or had changed in some way that caused them to drop to the bottom of the starch, which meant that they would not swirl and could not be lifted off with the paper floating on top- I did try sinking a paper to the bottom, and while it picked up some of the old colors, it was a garbled mess, not pretty and swirly.</li><li>The more liquid, "soft-bodied"&nbsp;acrylics in squeeze bottles&nbsp;worked much better than the more expensive professional paints in tubes.&nbsp;</li><li>Lots of small drops works better, because overzealous preschool squeezing of the paint causes huge glops of paint which immediately sink to the bottom.</li><li>Glitter can be added after the paint and will transfer beautifully.</li></ul><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rbPYQ85LP-4/T47n4Bd5JGI/AAAAAAAAAeE/YXUD05EbyqA/s1600/marbling+two+tone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rbPYQ85LP-4/T47n4Bd5JGI/AAAAAAAAAeE/YXUD05EbyqA/s320/marbling+two+tone.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><ul><li>We ran into a funny issue which I haven't solved yet: Our first prints came out great and very little of the paint came off the paper in the wash along side the starch. But as we progressed, more and more of the paint came off in the wash. I tried changing to fresh water and changing to fresh starch. The new&nbsp;starch&nbsp;helped with a certain muddiness that was taking over - all preschool art must eventually become Preschool Gray- but even with an essentially new set-up, we had a harder time keeping the paint on the paper in the wash. Eventually I tried just not washing some, which caused them to stick a bit to the cloth where they were drying, but I just peeled them off, re-washed them and lost no paint.</li><li>Note that acrylics do not wash out of clothes, and can permanently adhere to many non-porous surfaces if not cleaned up right away with soap and water.&nbsp;</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pmTI-mSYN7U/T47nxH8XxqI/AAAAAAAAAd8/6LsbgtUBDGY/s1600/marbling+purple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pmTI-mSYN7U/T47nxH8XxqI/AAAAAAAAAd8/6LsbgtUBDGY/s320/marbling+purple.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-47181872044903342922012-04-17T12:50:00.000-05:002012-04-17T12:54:10.284-05:00Simple Machines for Preschoolers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Z-sZpbp8iw/T42YCOmfL1I/AAAAAAAAAdc/AMsWevp4-cI/s1600/truck+ramp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Z-sZpbp8iw/T42YCOmfL1I/AAAAAAAAAdc/AMsWevp4-cI/s320/truck+ramp.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Child-led learning. It all sounds so lovely and peaceful. But really? I end up using child-led inspiration for our activities when the kids are at their worst, when nothing I do can stop the cycle of twin-on-twin aggression, when everyone is too tired or sick or grumpy to concentrate on what I planned.<br /><br />Alex and Anya were having a bad morning, switching off roles of tattler and&nbsp;mischievous&nbsp;imp, with increasing escalation and contrariness towards each other. Alex shouted from the living room, "No, Anya! Don't stick that in the couch! Mama, Anya won't stop and she's ruining our couch!"<br /><br />When I got to the living room, Anya was scowling at Alex and mumbling something about a lever while gripping a long skinny paintbrush. She had been shoving it into a hole in the couch so she could make a lever to push and pull.<br /><br />Things were getting dire. I needed something to distract them. Science to the rescue!<br /><br />I asked them if they would like to learn about levers. &nbsp;I took the paint brush and showed them how moving the whole thing moved it only in one direction, while if I balanced it on a Lego, I could push down on one end and watch the other end rise. I introduced the idea of pivoting, and that there was specific point at which the brush pivoted, which is also called a fulcrum. We looked at some levers around the house, like scissors, and I had them identify the pivot point.<br /><br />I looked around for a quick and dirty way to show them the difference in the amount of work that it took to lift things with a lever and without. We had an old box filled with Playmobil parts, and I duct taped the trusty paintbrush to the bottom of the box and had the&nbsp;children&nbsp;lift it&nbsp;straight&nbsp;up. Then I had them add in our Lego&nbsp;fulcrum&nbsp;again and try pushing down to lift it up. I described how when we did it the first way, our muscles did all of the work, but in the second way, the lever did some of the work, meaning less work for our muscles.<br /><br />I asked them to think about if we would be able to lift more or less with a lever. I asked them if they could think of any outside toys we had that were levers. They struggled with that question a bit, so I asked if they could lift each other up in the air- which backfired, because Anya can totally lift Alex- but then asked if any of their outside toys made it easy for them to take turns lifting each other up in the air. I sat in front of them going back and forth with my finger on a pencil lever held over a Lego fulcrum, and eventually they realized that see-saws are simple levers.<br /><br />Since Anya's desire to push and pull levers was the start of all this, I gave them plenty of time to play with all our improvised levers and make some new ones of our own- though I did convince her to avoid poking more holes in the couch to do so.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H8EtibbKBJQ/T42W17SxR7I/AAAAAAAAAc0/1-3t4rJWRwM/s1600/anya+ramp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H8EtibbKBJQ/T42W17SxR7I/AAAAAAAAAc0/1-3t4rJWRwM/s200/anya+ramp.jpg" width="128" /></a></div><br />Next we moved on to ramps, which were much easier to grasp- perhaps I should have started with them? I demonstrated how a&nbsp;little&nbsp;car needed me to push it on a flat board, but would move on it's own down a ramp, again emphasizing that in the former, my muscles had to do the work and in the latter, the simple machine did the work.<br /><br />I was hopeful that if I set them up with a good ramp that I could take a kid-break while they explored. I love doing these projects, but I think we all do better if I can have plenty of downtime between projects!<br /><br />I grabbed the remains of the (poorly&nbsp;constructed)&nbsp;dollhouse&nbsp;that&nbsp;I built for Anya a couple of years ago and duct taped two boards together. One side we propped up in the couch, the other was to let the cars run on after they built up speed on the ramp. I was going to have them measure the length that each car got on the board, but all of them went much further, so I settled for giving them a piece of tape to mark the farthest any car got on the rug a couple feet out from the ramp.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nudCqw3j10k/T42WpnT9DQI/AAAAAAAAAcs/JjjqA3s3sVk/s1600/alex+ramp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nudCqw3j10k/T42WpnT9DQI/AAAAAAAAAcs/JjjqA3s3sVk/s200/alex+ramp.jpg" width="135" /></a></div>They tried a ton of different small vehicles, and seem to realize quickly that the cars with motors never built up speed- we had a good but brief talk about how those cars are designed to go forward powered by the motor, and that the wheels could not move freely with gravity, like simpler cars could. I did have to remind them to not fling the cars down the ramp, but rather than phrasing it as a rule, I explained that we were measuring the work that the ramp was doing, and that if we used our muscles to propel the car, we wouldn't be measuring just the work of the ramp.<br /><br />They also experimented with pulling the ramp farther out or pushing it in, changing the angle, and the behavior of the cars going down it. Very cool to watch them exploring!<br /><br />Eventually Anya started wandering off, but I thought we could milk the ideas I had introduced just a bit more. As we were walking to the backdoor, I asked them to look around for more levers and ramps. Alex, who was still very into rolling things down ramps, went flying over to the fridge and announced, "Ramp!" proudly at the magnetic marble run. Yay!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KYgK_XE7NfU/T42XZSh5VZI/AAAAAAAAAdE/erwGht3UZzc/s1600/marble+run+ramps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KYgK_XE7NfU/T42XZSh5VZI/AAAAAAAAAdE/erwGht3UZzc/s320/marble+run+ramps.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br />Anya and I went ahead outside while he played and Anya peered around and told me in that condescending preschooler way, "Now, Mama, the slide, right here? That is a ramp, Mama, did you know that?"<br /><br />She also decided that the rocking horse was a lever, pointed out the see-saw to me, and told me that we should use a ramp to get the snowballs on top of each other for a snowman.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W2VSU0WDEUo/T42rp6sDguI/AAAAAAAAAdk/MEjEIzOovcg/s1600/simple+machine+collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="81" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W2VSU0WDEUo/T42rp6sDguI/AAAAAAAAAdk/MEjEIzOovcg/s400/simple+machine+collage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />Science FTW!<br /><br /><br /><br />Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-6841933511350811152012-04-04T15:07:00.001-05:002012-04-04T15:18:31.992-05:00"Tis a gift...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vmwM73_OVJ0/T3ynzMl8yVI/AAAAAAAAAaI/M1_ewjqa5gg/s1600/anya+climbing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vmwM73_OVJ0/T3ynzMl8yVI/AAAAAAAAAaI/M1_ewjqa5gg/s200/anya+climbing.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>Spring break means many adventures with cousins who are off school; we went to the Milwaukee Zoo all day Monday (started with tree climbing at 9:45 in the morning and didn't get home till almost dinner time!), then on Tuesday drove to Madison for the Children's Museum and an afternoon with our extended family.<br /><br />It was awesome exciting and more action that we usually have all week smashed into 36 hours.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sdgxj_9u7jk/T3yoBfwMpbI/AAAAAAAAAaY/O0ZGK_wFRHA/s1600/running+with+cousin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sdgxj_9u7jk/T3yoBfwMpbI/AAAAAAAAAaY/O0ZGK_wFRHA/s200/running+with+cousin.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />But there's something to be said for simple pleasures at home.<br /><br />This morning we ran some quick errands while still in pajamas, then came back and worked on our project for the rest of the week, "Making Our Home More Beautiful" which is my happier sounding re-framing of "Clean the Shit Out of Our Pigsty".<br /><br />I was amazed at how much the kids have changed in the past couple of months. I took them into our very messy utility room, where they aren't usually allowed without a grown up, and had them take turns sweeping the room, with the non-sweeping one putting dishes in the washer for me nearby. Then I taught them our to use the lightweight string mop I bought for the occasion, and they went to town, mopping the whole area twice, and &nbsp;probably almost effectively as I would have done on my own- and this is a floor that is filthy, since it had a soda (?) spilled on it and not cleaned up AND it is where everyone tromps in after being in the yard or (shudder) the firepit.<br /><br />After they were done they were excited to keep helping, and they collected laundry, put it in, measured soap, started the machine, carried clean laundry out. I supervised, but stepped in for physical helping very rarely.<br /><br />By the time lunch rolled around, everyone was still cheerful, and it had turned into a&nbsp;beautiful&nbsp;day. I let them loose&nbsp;outside&nbsp;with the hose on slightly and a watering can with instructions to water certain areas of the garden, then went inside. 6 months ago, They would have done all of the following in the first five minutes:<br /><br /><ul><li>Turned the hose up so high it would have drained our well and overheated our pump.</li><li>Sprayed each other in the face with blasts of the icy well water.</li><li>Started a screaming fight with one another over control of the hose</li><li>Blasted all the delicate new plants with the water and ignored the plants I asked them to see to.</li><li>Ran into the front yard without permission or worse, into the yard of the decidedly unfriendly dogs who are behind an invisible fence next door.</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hhPGLqV9YM0/T3yooPJ1YxI/AAAAAAAAAaw/icLR4eXtHgg/s1600/mud+pies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hhPGLqV9YM0/T3yooPJ1YxI/AAAAAAAAAaw/icLR4eXtHgg/s320/mud+pies.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>But now? They watered all the plants, pulled some dandelions, then came up with an awesome imaginary game involving making a mudpit for the pig statue in the garden and baking mud pies. No fighting, no destruction. They came in together when they were cold and with just a reminder from me, did NOT track mud through the house, but carefully stripped off their muddy clothes and put them in the washer (and Alex even added more dirty stuff and started the machine) got washed up, and are now hanging out with snacks on the couch together.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vPfoJHvMfmo/T3yo3OChGpI/AAAAAAAAAa4/d8w2if6HXJQ/s1600/splatting+the+mud+pies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vPfoJHvMfmo/T3yo3OChGpI/AAAAAAAAAa4/d8w2if6HXJQ/s320/splatting+the+mud+pies.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I know there is no age at which the parent child relationship stops having periods of being fraught, but the last year has been hard. I &nbsp;dislike discipline of any sort &nbsp;and yet have become takes-no-guff authoritative parent, which involves maintaining boundaries all. the. time. Sometimes it felt like I was trying to do the impossible, trying to tame ferocious little beasts- and of course I know there is an entire realm of parenting philosophy that disagrees with any&nbsp;sort&nbsp;of authoritative boundary setting, but that is not my bag! Sometimes I felt like they were like some sort of powerful duel force of erosion, wearing down my very soul. But today? When they seem to understand why I want there to be boundaries and rules, where they know they can discuss those rules and we can work together to create and enforce them, when we can finally start approaching our home and our world as a team? Today is a good day, and I think there may be more good days coming.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XNA_PmBhMXk/T3yoapJhP1I/AAAAAAAAAao/xatih3LOvMg/s1600/mud+equals+joy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XNA_PmBhMXk/T3yoapJhP1I/AAAAAAAAAao/xatih3LOvMg/s320/mud+equals+joy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-67594688286674852552012-03-25T13:09:00.002-05:002012-03-25T13:10:00.030-05:00Math Fun: The Counting Corn Game<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8aUkAF6LJY4/T29VOf33qvI/AAAAAAAAAaA/HTIuuNT6Crc/s1600/anya+counting+corn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8aUkAF6LJY4/T29VOf33qvI/AAAAAAAAAaA/HTIuuNT6Crc/s400/anya+counting+corn.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>I wanted to come up with a math game that would be helpful to both of my kids, even though they have very different skills sets/ ability levels. This is a fun activity to set up with the kids as well as fairly open-ended in how exactly you play and process the experience, so that you can let the kid guide how much they want to continue to explore the ideas. It'll also be fun even if kid doesn't want to "work" on specific counting skills; playing around with little objects in and out of little containers is just fun on its own!<br /><br /><b>Materials:</b><br />1 ice cube tray (or other sectioned container like a bead/tackle box or silverware tray) per kid<br />Blank stickers and a pen (or any other way to label each little section)<br />Unpopped popcorn/ dried beans/pennies/ other small counting object<br />Small shallow containers like large jar lids<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><b>Methods:</b><br />1. I showed the kids how I would write on number on each sticker, then asked them to tell me which number to write next. I think they enjoy getting to tell me what to do, and it makes them have an active role in the creation of the game. Plus, while they are busy bossing me around, they are practicing their counting!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-do1lVHdnS3A/T29U_jUNwzI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/P0V_Eh4IGtw/s1600/counting+corn+game.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-do1lVHdnS3A/T29U_jUNwzI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/P0V_Eh4IGtw/s320/counting+corn+game.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>2. I placed the first couple of stickers along the "back wall" of each ice cube section- so that they could see the number even when it was filled with stuff. Then I had them put the remaining stickers on, though I did hand them to the one at a time to prevent skipped numbers and to make sure they did them in a row. I think that counting and &nbsp;early addition and&nbsp;subtraction&nbsp;work is so much easier for them when things are neat and precise, so despite my intrinsically messy nature and my slight preference for rebellion over order, when we do math, I try to teach them to do things with an inherent sense of order that includes things like counting in rows and not skipping steps of a process.<br /><br />3. I gave them each a &nbsp;bowl full of unpopped popcorn and showed them how to count one kernel at a time to get the right number in each section. The kids will pretty much take it from there. I just let them guide me as far as what extra guidance they might need, and we brainstormed solutions to problems together.<br /><br /><b>Results &amp; Discussion:</b><br />Here are some of the things that came up:<br /><br />- Alex, who has a lot of fixed-mindset traits, and is hesitant to try something if he thinks he can't master it immediately, was very concerned that he didn't "know how many are the big numbers". He already has some of these traits, but the fact that Anya often masters skills like comfort with the "big numbers" just makes it more difficult for him. We talked about how each of our number slots was one number higher than the last- I had him verbalize that after asking leading questions about the lower numbers which he hasn't expressed any anxiety around. And then we came up with a plan that if he got to a number that he was worried about, he would look at the last number and add one more, which he was excited about as a solution, and I was excited about as proto-addition work!<br /><br />-The physical act of manipulating the kernels and (especially) fishing them out of the ice cube trays if they accidentally added too many was a great fine motor activity. It was challenging for my guys, I would probably use bigger objects (like dried garbanzos, mancala stones or large wood beads) and bigger containers for kids any younger or for anyone that wanted to focus more on math and less on fine motor.<br /><br />- Once they were done, I went through and counted each container, using a knitting needle to sort of arrange the kernels in rows and point to each as I counted aloud,&nbsp;encouraging the kids to count with me so that it wasn't so much me checking their work as us looking at it together- the kids usually noticed their mistakes before I said anything and were really great at figuring out if they needed to add or remove one or two to get to the right number. It also, I hope, functioned as a demonstration of how I count things. Demo would normally come in the beginning of a lesson, but I really liked how they worked out their own ways of doing it, then watched me, then added certain parts of my method to theirs as they liked.<br /><br />-After a while, I got out the large jar lids and gave them to the kids to be their counting trays. They would fish out the kernels and could then manipulate them in the lids without losing any, which was very helpful for lining them up in rows in order to make counting easier. Anya has been very interested in skip counting, and lining up in rows was a great way to add a visual/real life&nbsp;component&nbsp;to something we had only talked about and tried out while driving in the car.<br /><br />Coming up with math activities doesn't come as naturally to me as for science activities for the preschool set, but I was pleased with this. I'd like to start working on more skip counting, and perhaps some abacus work, or something which helps start conceptualizing the meaning of the digits in larger numbers and the meaning of place value.Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-23129756575682259962012-02-01T16:34:00.003-06:002012-02-01T16:35:37.991-06:00Marshmallow EstimationThe kids were intrigued by a contest at the drop-in care at the gym*, one of those ones where you estimate the number of candies in a jar and whoever is closest wins. They carefully wrote out their names and guesses (Anya said 101, Alex said 100 right after- he's almost got the Price Is Right strategy down. So close and yet so far.) and dropped them in the box.<br /><br />This seemed like the perfect chance to get them interested in the idea of estimating, especially since the most frequent question I get is, "How could you know?" They are both eager for learning new tools to understand the world and predict how it will work.<br /><br />I took four identical mason jars and put miniature marshmallows in each- five, ten, twenty and one hundred.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gx1n7bTElz0/Tym2EgEiwtI/AAAAAAAAAZA/srU6PsVo0bU/s1600/estimation+marshmallows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gx1n7bTElz0/Tym2EgEiwtI/AAAAAAAAAZA/srU6PsVo0bU/s320/estimation+marshmallows.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Then I made up quick sheets for the kids to fill out- a dotted line on top for their names, then four rows, each with a sketch of a jar and a box.<br /><br />I asked them to tell me what an estimate is ("A guess!"), then talked to them about the difference between a guess and an educated guess. I tried to emphasize that an estimate involved using your senses and mindfulness/"using your head" since they are always interested in the body and we are struggling with both of them not thinking about what they are doing, from rushing to put on clothes and doing it backward to tenaciously clinging to every conclusion they jump to, no matter how much that&nbsp;conclusion&nbsp;flies in the face of their experience of the world. I asked them to tell me times that people used estimates, and they mentioned counting stars, contests (Thank You, Curious George!) and when prompted about things I do in the house, they mentioned that when I am cooking I estimate&nbsp;ingredients, but that they still have to measure.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G6OpprHH9UQ/Tym1r8LxtsI/AAAAAAAAAYw/Q-iYEYwNl5Y/s1600/alex+estimating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G6OpprHH9UQ/Tym1r8LxtsI/AAAAAAAAAYw/Q-iYEYwNl5Y/s320/alex+estimating.jpg" width="221" /></a>I had them each take a jar, and encouraged them to pick it up, turn it around, look at the marshmallows from all different sides, feel if there was any difference in weight (could really do a lot more with this using lighter jars and heavier counting objects). We put the jars in ascending and descending order based on how much each looked to be filled.<br /><br />Once they had explored them for a bit, I asked them to draw a picture of what the marshmallows looked like in the jar, then write the number of marshmallows that they estimated was in each next to the picture. I wanted to encourage them to really look at the different volume that each number took up, rather than just focus on trying to count.<br /><br />It was really cool to see them working up from being able to simply count the marshmallows to actually having to work out a way to estimate. As I suspected, both of them had an immediate inclination to count, even when it was impossible. When they got stymied by that I encouraged them to look at the jars, compare them with the jars they had already done, and make their estimates from that. I started to talk about the amount of marshmallows doubling, but while Anya especially has been very interested in proto-multiplication (3 sets of 2 makes 6, take a away 2 and 2 sets of 2 makes 4), the abstract idea of doubling was a little more than they could do right now.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4QPYWHMAySs/Tym5lpMNZcI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/ygdtRwFDVVw/s1600/anya+estimating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4QPYWHMAySs/Tym5lpMNZcI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/ygdtRwFDVVw/s320/anya+estimating.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />In the end, we went through and talked about each of their estimates while looking at the jars together, then counted each jar to see how close they got. Then I let them eat the marshmallows. Math = Fun, guys! Remember that (not the obscene number of marshmallows)! Now let's go run around the yard for an hour!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UXJe5zarj5o/Tym15IOuUwI/AAAAAAAAAY4/qKgCV2HNptk/s1600/estimation+sheets+and+jars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UXJe5zarj5o/Tym15IOuUwI/AAAAAAAAAY4/qKgCV2HNptk/s320/estimation+sheets+and+jars.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br />* I recently conquered my fear of going to the gym, which has allowed me to restart the&nbsp;Couch&nbsp;to 5K program (because it turns out that running outside in Wisconsin is not for the out of shape and feint of heart). It's a post for another day, but running again has made me feel like a new woman. I did not realize just how much of my energy was being burned up simply by trying to stay afloat rather than get pulled down by the dark undertow of depression. I am extremely thankful to Luke, for keeping my gym membership alive even when I didn't use it for so long, and to my friend Jenny who inspired me to get back to running. I am also thankful that my kids will finally allow themselves to be left at the drop-in care, so that I no longer have to push 90+lbs of kid-and-stroller in order to run. Seriously, this is the best development in my life since finishing nursing school!Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-85920993841333569572012-01-12T20:07:00.001-06:002012-01-12T20:09:00.848-06:00Rainbow Snow!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_4gFBS7_-Rg/Tw-PxuamS-I/AAAAAAAAAYI/eyHPb3eM1Tc/s1600/snow+colors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_4gFBS7_-Rg/Tw-PxuamS-I/AAAAAAAAAYI/eyHPb3eM1Tc/s200/snow+colors.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>We just got our very first snow of the winter, but I was loathe to dig out their snowsuits from the packed suitcases waiting by the door for our trip up north tomorrow... so I decided to bring the snow into the kids instead!<br /><br />Inspired by this post at <a href="http://www.thechocolatemuffintree.com/2011/02/revisiting-snow-painting.html">the Chocolate Muffin Tree</a> about painting snow outside with colored water, I filled an ice cube tray with water, then put a couple drops of food coloring/gels in each.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MhNGE19KjEU/Tw-PdMXF-WI/AAAAAAAAAX4/OCsRWNt42ok/s1600/colors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MhNGE19KjEU/Tw-PdMXF-WI/AAAAAAAAAX4/OCsRWNt42ok/s320/colors.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I went outside and scooped up some fresh snow, careful to get only the cleanest, since I had a feeling it was going to end up being eaten.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tNHGfSgWMsc/Tw-O5xDzaeI/AAAAAAAAAXg/OLFr80KyyRc/s1600/alex+coloring+snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tNHGfSgWMsc/Tw-O5xDzaeI/AAAAAAAAAXg/OLFr80KyyRc/s200/alex+coloring+snow.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jcVyx0X53vQ/Tw-PIMoasKI/AAAAAAAAAXo/MixDUb1Kclc/s1600/anya+coloring+snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jcVyx0X53vQ/Tw-PIMoasKI/AAAAAAAAAXo/MixDUb1Kclc/s200/anya+coloring+snow.jpg" width="200" /></a>I handed the kids paintbrushes at first to drip the color into their bowls, but the little brushes didn't carry much of the colored water and were difficult to control, so I grabbed a couple of used, clean medicine syringes (the kind without needles, obviously!) and let the kids start filling and squirting them into their snow how ever they liked. And they *loved* it all, doing the whole thirty minute activity twice in the same night!<br /><br />They kept the paint brushes for stirring and poking. I had thought that scooping and packing the snow would be fun, so I brought out spoons and small containers, but as soon as they had spoons they both just set to eating it like ice cream, delighting in the silliness of it all. In fact, after the first round when we had to stop to eat, they drank their colored snow water with dinner.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AD8LiK_hrf8/Tw-PSb6TozI/AAAAAAAAAXw/ai-yn9i_0PA/s1600/anya+eating+snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AD8LiK_hrf8/Tw-PSb6TozI/AAAAAAAAAXw/ai-yn9i_0PA/s200/anya+eating+snow.jpg" width="179" /></a></div><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oOKZM7p5tTE/Tw-PoUB8KbI/AAAAAAAAAYA/fR7XfvIqJtk/s1600/lake+for+the+snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oOKZM7p5tTE/Tw-PoUB8KbI/AAAAAAAAAYA/fR7XfvIqJtk/s320/lake+for+the+snow.jpg" width="320" /></a>Anya explored how plain water squirted made a clean tunnel to the bottom of the bowl, then set about making a blue green lake at the bottom, so the snow had "something to float on"<br /><br />We also tried squirting separate drops of all the colors onto the bottom of a bowl, packing fresh snow down into it, then inverting the bowl and looking at the rainbow patterns that the snow took up (the first photo of the post is from that experiment).<br /><br />Overall, tons of fun, very little mess, no expense, a little color theory and a little physics as we talked about temperature. Win!Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-59072576578812991132011-10-20T20:49:00.003-05:002011-10-20T20:50:24.859-05:00Bones (and a bit of eyes!)<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">We are keeping the kids home from preschool for a couple of months, and to keep back the tide of inevitable &nbsp;chaos and 3.75 year old madness, I designed units to do with them, including schedules and regularly scheduled edumacation and whatnot. This is Day 1, posted a couple weeks later because, um, nothing ever goes as planned!</span></i><br /><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0T5eL3qLUbo/TqDOkxcl-2I/AAAAAAAAASQ/5M6oE9g5MoA/s1600/anya+skeleton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0T5eL3qLUbo/TqDOkxcl-2I/AAAAAAAAASQ/5M6oE9g5MoA/s320/anya+skeleton.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>First day of week one was marred by an eye doc appointment for Alex- and our eye doc appointments have been known to take five hours because she is always triple and quadruple booked or more, there's four rooms and two waiting rooms, all of which are full and the doc cycles through each room while her staff cycles people in and out of rooms. It's not unusual to have three stints in the waiting rooms with each visit, which is a pain for anyone, but I really think I deserve a medal everytime I make it through a visit like that with two small children.</div><div><br /></div><div>To make matters worse, Anya had a sudden reaction to the antibiotic she was on for a sinus infection and we had to race to the bathroom down the hall many times.<br /><br />However, the eye doc had a great model of the eyeball and I talked them through all the parts of the eye, and we tried looking through the lens showing various pathologies, so they could see how if anything happened to the lens it would not let light in. I wrapped my coat over their heads and held the cataracts lens up to the one spot I was letting light in, and asked them to tell me what they could see. We also looked at the eye muscles and talked about how the doctor could move them and shorten them, but only because Alex had strabismus surgery last year and Anya will have it next spring.<br /><br />A side note on preschoolers and twins and surgery: I've read that you should consider carefully whether to tell kids much details about upcoming potentially traumatic procedures, but decided that it would be good for my kids to know. When I started talking to Anya about needing surgery, Alex piped up to tell her about his experience, and to tell her&nbsp;which&nbsp;parts were scary, but how it wasn't *actually* scary, how his eyes hurt afterwards and he wanted me to be there, but that then I came and it was better. Anya asked him questions ("Was it scary when they took you away from Mama?" "No, it was a little bit scary, but then I was pretty brave and the doctor was nice."). I told them that my mom would come to visit for Anya's surgery just like she ahd for Alex's and that got them pretty excited. They are planning to do each and every thing exactly the same, but with the roles reversed. Anya will wake up before it is light out and go to the hospital, and Alex will stay home with Mama's Mama and make cookies for Anya to have when she feels a little better. I really think this is one of those times that the awesomeness of twins shows through.<br /><br />When we finally got home from the doctor, we started talking about bones. There were a couple of points that I wanted to make sure we covered, and then I oversimplified all the rest.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6rNCGxie3sA/TqCEERa997I/AAAAAAAAASA/1eOZ1eT6X44/s1600/skeleton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6rNCGxie3sA/TqCEERa997I/AAAAAAAAASA/1eOZ1eT6X44/s320/skeleton.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b>Important Points:</b><br /><br /><ul><li>Bones are hard and rigid, so they are strong but they can break (the kids are obsessed with casts and stories about broken limbs, so we had a headstart on this one), They keep us upright and protect our body.</li><li>Different bones have different jobs in our body; some help us stay upright (backbone), some help us walk or move things (long bones of the legs and arms, pelvis) &nbsp;and some protect vulnerable parts of our bodies (brain, ribcage).</li><li>Bones are white because they are made up of the mineral calcium, which we have to take into our body by eating things like yogurt and dark green vegetables and drinking milk.</li></ul><div><br /></div><div><b>My more advanced points that grow off the above:</b></div><div><ul><li>Bones can grow: kids' skeletons are growing and making them get taller, but bones also grow if a bone is broken and the two broken edges grow back together.</li><li>Special cells called osteoblasts take calcium and other substances from the blood and turn it into bone on the growing or broken edges. If the rest of the body needs calcium, special cells called osteoclasts come along and break down the bone and let the calcium back into the blood. This is fun because you can pretend to be PacMan munching on bone. And again, we've talked about bones a lot prior to starting this lesson, so we had a head start.</li><li>Bones make up a frame for all the rest of our bodies, and all the bones fit together and work together and with the muscles and connective tissue.</li></ul><div>Our project for bones was fun and the kids loved every step of it (and it was so easy- I did it totally on the fly, no prep work or even forethought!):&nbsp;</div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>The Life-Sized Bone Puzzle</b></span></div><div>I had the kids take turns laying down and holding still on top of a long strip of easel/mural paper, while the other kid and I traced the outline of the their body.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Once we were done I did a refresher on parts of the body- I was pretty sure they knew it all, but every once in a while they surprise me by not knowing something and I feel like a dummy for not teaching them&nbsp;something&nbsp;so simple.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9JCJcDIojgc/TqDOolVde8I/AAAAAAAAASY/kaXiQ-sXUeg/s1600/life+size+skeleton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9JCJcDIojgc/TqDOolVde8I/AAAAAAAAASY/kaXiQ-sXUeg/s320/life+size+skeleton.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div>Then while the kids played with their body outlines, I grabbed some cardstock we had leftover and started drawing bones.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can see that they are really basic, and I was&nbsp;concerned&nbsp;that all the long bones would be indistinguishable, since my drawings leave something to be desired and the kids are only in preschool, so I included some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_(poker)">tells</a>, like the hands/feet attached to the lower extremities and the femur's prominent one-sided head where it fits into the pelvis. I put these aside for the moment.</div><div><br /></div><div>I had the kids come over and show me where they knew they had bones: they pointed out their legs and arms, and poked especially at bony&nbsp;prominence&nbsp;like the ankle bone and wrist bone. That told me that 1) I should physically show them some other bones by making them more obvious and 2) I might have to work hard to convince them about bones like the hips which are harder to see and feel as obvious bones.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>I started going through the bones, showing them on my own body and theirs, bending and getting into funny positions to try to reveal the bones as much as possible, and having the kids do the same. They were totally into this- having each kid curl up in a tight ball while the other felt all the bumps of their vertebrae was especially awesome.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once they were excited about the skeletal system and seemed comfortable pointing out where certain bones are on their own bodies, we moved back to the body outlines. Unlike some of my other projects, I emphasized simple, common names because I think even the simplified skeleton involved a lot of memorizing and that I was already pushing the kids' limits. It was important to me that they be exposed to the technical terms, but more important that they start seeing how all the individual pieces fit together.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's the basics of what I went through:</div><div><br /></div><div><ul><li><b>The Skull</b> - Protects our brains and forms our face.</li><li><b>The Ribcage</b> - I showed them pictures from an anatomy book to show them how it actually looks like a cage, surrounding and protecting the heart and lungs.</li><li><b>The Pelvis/Hips</b>-This is a tough one, since I didn't want to talk about the first thing <i>I</i>&nbsp;think of, which how the shape of the pelvis affects the passage of an infant through the birth canal. I talked instead about it looking like a butterfly and generally looking funny compared to other bones, and that it was where the legs attached.</li><li><b>The Backbone</b> - We stacked blocks on top of one another to show how the backbone is made of vertebrae stacked on one another, and I emphasized that it helps us stand upright.</li><li><b>The Long Bones of the Arm and Leg</b> - uppers each have one large bone, while the lowers have two bones. You can feel the lateral aspects of each lower arm bone.</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5e9fpBq9Qxk/TqDOiHyKVmI/AAAAAAAAASI/WwDn2sie-A4/s1600/alex+skeleton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5e9fpBq9Qxk/TqDOiHyKVmI/AAAAAAAAASI/WwDn2sie-A4/s320/alex+skeleton.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>As we went through these with the cards, I asked them to help me place them on the life sized outlines, and was quick to give help the first time around. Then I had them gather up the cards in piles and try to piece together the skeletons on their own. It was awesome. They were really excited, helped each other and only asked for help from me a little bit. Then they did it over and over and over till I put the whole project away the following day.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>I eventually added some additional hints to help them remember some functions, like adding a red heart in the middle of the ribs, so that it actually looked like it was being protected. and the diaphragm muscle so that we could start talking about breathing in a couple of days.</div><div><br /></div><div>One project I didn't do, but plan to someday, is to illustrate what happens to bone when the osteoclasts pull calcium from the bones- osteoporosis. That happens when the rest of the body needs calcium (and is of course much more complicated than this!) and is one of the reasons we need to take in enough food with calcium. To illustrate, take a sponge and get it soaking wet with a watery clay mixture (like slip), making sure to squeeze it out and let the slip soak in all the way, then let it dry. It should be rigid like a bone, then put it in a container of warm water, saying that the warm water is the osteoclasts, who have come to help get some calcium to the rest of the body. After a little while, the clay should get soft and dissolve out of the sponge. Cut the sponge open and let the kids see how the interior is spongy and the "bone" is no longer strong and hard. I hope that such a lesson would make the importance of eating enough calcium more real to them.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-18840933311569640052011-10-11T11:33:00.006-05:002011-10-11T11:47:22.507-05:00Lungs and Air<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><i style="font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="">I've got my 3.75 year old twins at home instead of in preschool for a short period of time, this is Day 4 of my Big Preschool at Home project- I'm hoping to keep up with the blogging, both as a record and to help anyone else who is planning something similar or wants to supplement preschool with some discovery learning and science activities.</span></i></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><i style="font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class=""><br /></span></i></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wa43_-NfC8g/TpBTnsFAgLI/AAAAAAAAARs/dwr64JC3ebk/s1600/046.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wa43_-NfC8g/TpBTnsFAgLI/AAAAAAAAARs/dwr64JC3ebk/s200/046.png" width="183" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Upside Down Lungs = Tree!</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Breathing and lungs did not lend themselves to preschool projects quite as easily as the heart or the GI system. We talked about air coming in, and I flipped over diagrams of the lungs so that they really looked like trees. I was surprised at what a difference that made- it was as though when I first started talking about the windpipe as a large tube, like a trunk, and how it branched and each branching tube got smaller, just like a tree, they were just staring at me blankly, but after I showed them the lungs actually looking like a tree they could visualize it.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">The other analogy that I used was for the alveoli. I asked them to imagine a balloon tree, so that at the end of each little "twig" in the lung tree, there was a bunch of little balloon instead of leaves. Alveoli are often described as looking like grapes in anatomy classes and texts, but while they do <i>look </i>like grapes, that image of solid tissue (combined especially with the fact that to the naked eye lungs <i>look</i>&nbsp;solid rather than hollow) make eventual understanding of the <b>function</b>&nbsp;of the lungs that much more difficult. Plus, with young kids, balloons are way more interesting than grapes.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">At this point I feel like I need to talk about why I am teaching my preschoolers about stuff that lots of adults don't know. I don't really have a good answer except "Why not?" They seem to love learning how things work, the natural&nbsp;curiosity&nbsp;of the age can be applied to a specific subject (like physiology) rather than being generalized in a series of random (and never-ending!) "Why?" questions- all it takes is just introducing a topic and getting them excited. It's like vocabulary- I could use the word <b>nice</b> to describe a desired behavior and while praising specific incidences, but "nice" is a pretty vague word, and the kids hear it to describe pleasant weather, as an exclamation along the lines of "rad!" and to describe a good steak. So I use the word <b>considerate</b>, and tell them how "consider" means to think, and how we want to think about how our actions affect those around us, and (since I know they are three and learn from concrete examples) then we talk about the real world, all from the perspective of being considerate: When you snatch a toy from Alex, how does it make him feel? Is it considerate to snatch? When you throw trash from the window of a moving car, what happens to it? Who cleans it up? Does it mess up nature? So is it considerate to litter? And pretty soon they are&nbsp;noticing&nbsp;the world through a new lens, one that is more nuanced and more practically applicable than the simpler concept of "nice". They can learn it, I mean, learning the meaning of words (or the way the world works) is a complex business which they are primed for right now, why not go ahead and expose them to a more thorough toolbox and let them use as much of that awesome ability to learn new concepts as possible?&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Maybe some of it will stick, maybe it will make biology easier for them (I kinda doubt that). Or maybe it will function as a cool foundation for developing investigative, scientific minds. Or maybe it will get them excited about asking questions and trying to figure out answers to those questions- wait those last two are the same thing: SCIENCE! Maybe it will prevent them from feeling like science is scary, as so many people do, just by taking away the barrier of scientific jargon. Or maybe it won't do a damn thing except help me, as a parent, come up with some fun stuff to do during these infuriating, amazing, exhausting, beautiful, long and over-so-fast days of raising young children.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Back to the project!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">We had a good foundation with the fact that the blood needs to bring air to the cells. And they knew enough to know that we breathe in through our lungs to get air. We busted out the stethoscope again and I traced where the air went in, down the trachea and into the lungs, and reminded them about how the ribs formed a protective cage around the lungs and heart.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Then I got a balloon out and blew it up and deflated it several times, asking them to tell me what is inside of the balloon when it is full. We talked more about the lungs being an upside down balloon tree, and I asked them to take deep breaths and imagine that every time they did all the balloons on the tree got blown up super big, then on every breath out, they deflated. When the balloons were blown up, I continued, the blood could come by and grab some air from them and take it to the cells.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c26NV-4LWNk/TpBtOQ8tWNI/AAAAAAAAARw/BPtsJvcQOPg/s1600/respiratory_alveoli_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c26NV-4LWNk/TpBtOQ8tWNI/AAAAAAAAARw/BPtsJvcQOPg/s200/respiratory_alveoli_web.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">We looked at some pictures of the alveoli capillaries, and I showed them how the blood came in without oxygen (blue), picked up air from the balloons, and then left filled with oxygen (red). Not sure if any of that part sunk in, but they loved the pictures and tracing the path of the blood from blue to red with their fingers.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">The project I decided to do was about <i>how</i>&nbsp;we breathe in and out, rather than what happens to the air inside our body. It was not ideal, given the emphasis I placed on lung function in my week-long lesson arc- that is, I had kind of bound the whole week together on circulation not the mechanical way that we breathe. Hey, anyone who isn't as much of a physiology nerd as me, want a one sentence explanation of how we breathe? The diaphragm muscle moves down, creating space and a pressure vaccum that allows the lungs to expand, the alveoli fill up with air due to a pressure differential rather then being inflated like a balloon or a car tire, does that make sense? However, I was totally stumped how to make a hands-on project showing something like oxygen transfer. We could have played a game with trains to get into the idea of transportation, but I decided to go with a project where we built a little model of breathing because it seemed like it would hold the kids' interest more. In hindsight, I'm not sure if that's true!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EBE4yU333Cc/TpIlTl7Yd-I/AAAAAAAAAR0/TfmahluZMYk/s1600/respiration+lung+model.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EBE4yU333Cc/TpIlTl7Yd-I/AAAAAAAAAR0/TfmahluZMYk/s320/respiration+lung+model.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">We made a model of a lung that shows how when the diaphragm moves, air gets pulled in to the alveoli- represented by the balloon inflating inside the bottle. There are a ton of instructions for this project online, some listed below. Here's how I did it:</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><b>Materials</b></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">2 balloons (good to have spares in case you butcher your first one)</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Small plastic bottle</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">duct tape</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">straw</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">scissors</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><b>Methods</b></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br /><br /><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">Take the bottle and cut the bottom off.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">Without inflating, tie one of the balloons off, then cut the top off of that balloon. Try fitting the cut top of the balloon over the cut bottom of the bottle. Cut a little less off next time if it doesn't fit or leaves only a tiny bit of the knotted balloon stem dangling from the bottom- you'll need to pull on that knotted end to create negative pressure in a minute.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">Duct tape the cut balloon to the bottom of the bottle. Make sure to seal it well, because any air leaks will ruin the effect.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">Take the second balloon and inflate it a couple of times- the balloon will inflate more easily during the experiment after being stretched. Then stick the straw into the balloon and secure with duct tape, again, being careful to seal well to prevent air leaks. Try blowing it up with the straw to check for leaks. You can stop right here and let the kids play with this contraption, they'll be able to blow up balloons like this even as little kids, which is so fun for them!</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">Insert the balloon side into the neck of the bottle and secure with duct tape, making sure there are no air leaks, but leaving the straw end free.</span></li></ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j0EiTBBAArQ/TpIlcKCukoI/AAAAAAAAAR8/oHBh1V4kDbU/s1600/respiration+anya+diaphragm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j0EiTBBAArQ/TpIlcKCukoI/AAAAAAAAAR8/oHBh1V4kDbU/s200/respiration+anya+diaphragm.jpg" width="132" /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><b>Procedure</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Have the kids look at the deflated balloon inside the bottle- this is the lungs/alveoli. The bottle itself is the chest cavity/ribs and the cut and tied off balloon at the bottom is the diaphragm muscle.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Watch the lung-balloon carefully as you pull the diaphragm-balloon down and away from the chest-bottle: It will inflate, just like the lungs do when the diaphragm contracts and flattens, creating more space in the chest cavity, causing negative pressure and air is sucked right into the lungs.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0WHShJ5n2ZE/TpIlY43ce4I/AAAAAAAAAR4/EQbRC1Fp3yI/s1600/respiration+anya+blowing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0WHShJ5n2ZE/TpIlY43ce4I/AAAAAAAAAR4/EQbRC1Fp3yI/s320/respiration+anya+blowing.jpg" width="212" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Now, the balloon-lung may only inflate a little, possibly only enough to get rid of the folds of the balloon- a smaller lung-balloon or a large chest-bottle and diaphragm might make it more obvious. We used a small 16 oz. water bottle and two 10" balloons just because I had them lying around. If you run into problems with the lung not obviously expanding, check for air leaks, then try sucking on the straw so that the balloon has no residual air at all, then the difference when some air gets "breathed" in will be more obvious.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">My kid enjoyed the project, but as I said, the meat of the lesson may have been over their head. They've definitely internalized the process of breathe in air with the lungs -&gt; blood takes air from lungs and transports it to the cells, and that cells need more air when they are exercising (big ups to my husband; when the kids told him they learned about the lungs and breathing, he asked them about times that they got out of breath and how running around made them feel- I totally spaced on that angle, which has proven to be a great teaching tool that we can talk about all the time while playing!)</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">And the part of the project that was the most fun for the kids? Blowing up the lung balloon with the straw!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Resources:</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://lawrencehall.science.museum/familyhealth/activities/breathing/BreathingInvestigations.pdf">A great pdf from the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, CA (one of my most beloved childhood hangouts)</a></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.lessonplanspage.com/SciencePELungs-TheBreathingMachine25.htm">The Breathing Machine (I used a variant of this for our project)</a></span><br /><br /><a href="http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/htbw_main_page.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How the body works, animations for kids on general anatomy</span></a></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><i style="font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class=""><br /></span></i></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><i style="font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class=""><br /></span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><i style="font-family: 'lucida sans', 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class=""><br /></span></i></span></div>Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-77527499435912617922011-10-05T17:13:00.000-05:002011-10-06T16:43:37.252-05:00Digestive System<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">I've got my 3.75 year old twins at home instead of in preschool for a short period of time, this is Day 3 of my Big Preschool at Home project- I'm hoping to keep up with the blogging, both as a record and to help anyone else who is planning something similar or wants to supplement preschool with some discovery learning and science activities.</span></i></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></i></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vZsV3aX7MpQ/Toy8yUDg_BI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/XpvfXs7BWyI/s1600/digestive+a+and+a+stomach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vZsV3aX7MpQ/Toy8yUDg_BI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/XpvfXs7BWyI/s320/digestive+a+and+a+stomach.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></i></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">The digestive system day got off to a rocky start with both kids cranky- my more&nbsp;resilient&nbsp;kid was brought to tears because her brother was the first to find a pen for our shopping list!</span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">I've been so focused on our body lessons that I haven't quite stayed on top of some household duties, so we started by first talking about food in our house, food that is healthy, and what different foods help our bodies do. Anya has been toying with the idea of not eating anything that comes from dead animals- her love of sausage and bacon is proving a sticking point for any vegetarianism- and so we talked a lot about the sources of different types of foods. That segued nicely into getting a household chore done: the shopping list and trip to the grocery store.&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Our usual method is that I ask each kid to list 2-3 things they think we need, and as they say them I first draw a picture of the item, then sound out the word as I write it out. Each kid gets a list made this way, and it is their job to keep an eye out for their items and remind me to get them. I'm always pleased when they can remember something beyond their favorite foods and especially when they ask what&nbsp;</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">ingredients we need to make something they are craving for dinner</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">, I hope it is a skill that comes in handy when they are on their own- I know plenty of adults &nbsp; who have a hard time shopping effectively and planning meals!</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">During our drive to the store I talked them through the process of digestion. I asked them to tell me what happens first to food that we eat, and was expecting to hear "it goes to our tummy", and so I was thrilled when Anya told me that first our teeth "crunch up all our food"- that led into talking about saliva and how it and the teeth start the process and help make the food into a moist, soft ball to swallow. I also threw in a little bit about the importance of chewing and had them think about times that they had swallowed something hard and had it hurt- tortilla chips being the big offender. We talked about the stomach and how it mechanically squishes the food up even more, and I introduced the idea of stomach acid that continues to break down and soften the food even more. The intestines are next, and I was able to tie them into the circulation system we talked about yesterday. I made sure to ask some questions to prompt them to remember yesterday's lesson, and it definitely helped. Then we talked about how the nutrients and good stuff were&nbsp;transferred&nbsp;from the food in the intestine to the blood waiting to take the nutrients to the hungry cells. And then, once all the good stuff is taken out, the waste that's left over is... POOP! Oh, so much joy in our household! Learning about POOP!</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">As a side note, I use driving time to introduce topics and do my little mini-lectures a lot because</span></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7XxEJBrkCeQ/TozExDV3gPI/AAAAAAAAARU/2lesIny86ZM/s1600/332061_2355649927636_1141841944_2813621_1736203283_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7XxEJBrkCeQ/TozExDV3gPI/AAAAAAAAARU/2lesIny86ZM/s200/332061_2355649927636_1141841944_2813621_1736203283_o.jpg" width="139" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anya's Macrophage</td></tr></tbody></table><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">It staves off boredom in the car, and as any Yoda Mama knows, boredom leads to antsy-ness, antsy-ness leads to button-pushing, button-pushing leads to fighting and fighting leads to yelling, misery and the Dark Side.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">I have a captive audience, and the kids are much less likely to get distracted by the cat walking by or a beloved toy in the corner or a shiny piece of tinfoil on the floor. It doesn't take much with the three year old set!</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">They love it! Seriously, they get excited and request certain topics over and over. I credit our driving talks about the immune system for the fact that Anya drew that thing on the left. When I asked what it was she said, "It's that kind of tiny cell in your body that eats all the bad germs, what's that one called again? Yeah, a macrophage, it's a macrophage!" My heart, she swoons!</span></li></ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Later, we did our big digestive system project:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">First we got a couple of ziploc bags, a small container of water dyed green, a little bit of vinegar, some saltines, a cheap nylon knee-high (left-over from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YAUxeopgNw">making fairy wings</a>, you can pick 'em up 4/$1 and they have tons of &nbsp;uses, grab some next time you see 'em for cheap!), scissors and a Sharpie.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uUrM7f4ij2o/Toy87aL_dEI/AAAAAAAAARI/-sz07b9kaZY/s1600/digestive+alex+stomach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uUrM7f4ij2o/Toy87aL_dEI/AAAAAAAAARI/-sz07b9kaZY/s200/digestive+alex+stomach.jpg" width="151" /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">I talked to them about digestive acid in the stomach again, and showed them how I added some vinegar to the green water to make our pretend stomach &nbsp;acid. Then I had them help spell their own names on the bags and drew a simple drawing of the stomach, along with arrows showing where food goes in at the top and out into the intestines at the bottom. We added our stomach acid and then the kids started adding crackers. Once the bags were sealed, I asked the kids to be the stomachs, to mush the crackers up so that our pretend body could digest them.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TsEPb2gIZus/Toy89xYTInI/AAAAAAAAARM/sVWtVEJw1kQ/s1600/digestive+anya+closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TsEPb2gIZus/Toy89xYTInI/AAAAAAAAARM/sVWtVEJw1kQ/s320/digestive+anya+closeup.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">They went to town, and I had them stop and make observations about the changes in the crackers, "like playdough" and "soft" were the two big descriptors. It think it is one of the coolest meta-learning parts of projects like this, that they are learning the scientific method, from lit review to gathering materials to performing the actual experiment to observing the subject and finally talking about the whole experience and learning to apply it to other situations. I'm hoping to introduce ultra simple hypothesis testing soon, and getting them used to the idea by frequently asking them questions in the form of "What do you think will happen when we do ______?"</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1D1dadEU-do/Toy84H-LwpI/AAAAAAAAARE/Z-JxUpRBBbU/s1600/digestive+alex+closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1D1dadEU-do/Toy84H-LwpI/AAAAAAAAARE/Z-JxUpRBBbU/s320/digestive+alex+closeup.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">I let them play with the stomachs for a while while I cleaned up. I've found it is really important for them to have plenty of breaks from active talking and lessons, though I admit that my tendency is to go on and on. I kind of wish I had had this experience with preschoolers before I taught experimental methodology to undergrads- I would have been a better teacher if I had learned that not everyone wants to be overloaded and stuffed full of info while in learning mode! It's also important for <i>me</i>&nbsp;to take these breaks, so that the mess of two kids at home doesn't start overwhelming my already-scant housekeeping skills and so that I have some recharge time to avoid feeling spread too thin.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rOVoLlfbs_4/Toy8rfdp9iI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/wxaO0AnggTs/s1600/digestive+a+and+a+into+the+instestines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rOVoLlfbs_4/Toy8rfdp9iI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/wxaO0AnggTs/s200/digestive+a+and+a+into+the+instestines.jpg" width="145" /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Next up, intestines! I took the stocking and cut off the toe, and used the empty water cup to hold it open, cut the corner off the ziplocks and had the kids help me squeeze the stomach contents into the intestines.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dNkeY9wtCs4/Toy8pIhV08I/AAAAAAAAAQw/D2AE_KoUStA/s1600/digestive+a+and+a+intestines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dNkeY9wtCs4/Toy8pIhV08I/AAAAAAAAAQw/D2AE_KoUStA/s320/digestive+a+and+a+intestines.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">I showed the kids how the lining of the intestines was permeable- it lets some oozy stuff out which I called the nutrients- and I explained that the blood vessels came right up next to the intestines and let the blood pick up food for all the hungry cells. As we squeezed more of the mush through the nylon, more of it came out the sides as nutrients, and the stuff in the middle got smaller. I asked them which was bigger, all the food we eat in a day piled together or the poop we have the following day, and pointed out that that's because our body takes in and keeps all the good stuff and pushes the rest out as poop. The grand finale, of course, was when the nylon finally pooped out the leftover green-cracker-mush-pretend-poop. Messy but totally worth it!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SOJX_W-rHFQ/TozUDOP3xCI/AAAAAAAAARY/2aUeUkBHErU/s1600/digestive+anya+messy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SOJX_W-rHFQ/TozUDOP3xCI/AAAAAAAAARY/2aUeUkBHErU/s320/digestive+anya+messy.jpg" width="295" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fake Poop Hands!</td></tr></tbody></table><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-73889791252694156872011-10-04T11:56:00.002-05:002011-10-04T20:26:14.854-05:00Circulation<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I've got my 3.75 year old twins at home instead of in preschool for a short period of time, this is Day 2 of my Big Preschool at Home project- I'm hoping to keep up with the blogging, both as a record and to help anyone else who is planning something similar or wants to supplement preschool with some discovery learning and science activities.</span></i><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5M63Z2lLzso/Tos5qU-0QYI/AAAAAAAAAQg/N_jE-I2bxgw/s1600/circulation+anya+and+alex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5M63Z2lLzso/Tos5qU-0QYI/AAAAAAAAAQg/N_jE-I2bxgw/s320/circulation+anya+and+alex.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>On the docket for today: Blood, circulation and the heart, as a part of our week about the body.<br /><br />We listened to the heart, breath sounds and the belly in the morning after breakfast, and I asked the kids to imitate the noises we heard. I have a stethoscope, but this could be done just by laying an ear on chest and belly in a quiet room.<br /><br />Then for a short sit down lesson on blood. First we looked at pictures of the circulatory system, and I talked to them about how it is basically just a bunch of tiny tubes running through the body (we've talked before about tubes, and how the body is made up of many hollow tubes) filled with blood. Then we took a quick book break (which I'm discovering is vital to this school-at-home process and looked at vessels on our own bodies- the inside of the wrist and elbow are two good spots to see them if you have a pale kid, but gentle pressure around the adult's lower arm will make anyone's veins pop up a little, enough to be felt.<br /><br />We talked about how the cells in the body get hungry and need oxygen/air, and how the blood's job is to bring food and oxygen to the cells. I illustrated this by grabbing their big toes and pretending to be a tiny big toe cell shrieking in hunger. Then I traced how the blood would come charging down to bring food to the cell.<br /><br />(This could also easily be turned into a running game. One kid could be the hungry cell, some food or play food in a big pile in another area (the "stomach/belly"), and some chalk to draw the outline of the this stomach and a maze of chalk "vessels" connecting the two. One person can be the blood, running through the maze to bring food to the hungry cell. We'll probably try this out later this week.)<br /><br />After they seemed like they grasped the idea of blood transporting things the cells needed through the vessels, it was time for the big fun project: DIY Giant Heart!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kt2n0H_Sfso/Tos552QY1KI/AAAAAAAAAQk/QndG5__MOWM/s1600/circulation+close+up+of+gear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kt2n0H_Sfso/Tos552QY1KI/AAAAAAAAAQk/QndG5__MOWM/s320/circulation+close+up+of+gear.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>I rigged this up almost totally on the fly, and it really worked out well!<br /><br />I got a jar and filled it halfway with water, added some red food coloring to be the blood. Then I got a turkey baster and the clear tubing from our seldom-used <a href="http://www.nosefrida.com/">Nosefrida</a>, but any clear tubing would work. I stuck the turkey baster nozzle into the tubing (it was a tight fit that kept popping out, so I duct taped it together and it worked like a charm). Next a tried to minimize mess by putting it all in a pan to catch the inevitable spilled "blood". Lastly, I got several small cups to be my hungry cells that needed blood to bring them food and air.<br /><br />Before the big reveal of the project, I presented them with a problem: if the blood is in the vessel, how does it move to the hungry big toe cell? To illustrate, I got some "blood" in the tubing (before attaching it to the baster) &nbsp;and showed them the hungry "cells" and asked how the blood could get to the cell. I was totally pleased with Alex's answer that we could "squeeze the blood through"!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zTzu79ypf6A/Tos6BX7cqNI/AAAAAAAAAQs/iznxvHlg84c/s1600/circulation+in+action.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zTzu79ypf6A/Tos6BX7cqNI/AAAAAAAAAQs/iznxvHlg84c/s320/circulation+in+action.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I introduced the idea of a heart as a big muscle that squeezes the blood through the vessels, and then showed them how the baster bulb was like a big &nbsp;heart that could pump the blood to the cells. They each took turn pumping the blood and holding the vessel in the cells, learning how to suck the blood back to the heart as well.<br /><br />After all that kind of intense learning, I left them to play with the tubes and suction- it was awesome to hear them pretending to be hungry cells, working out problems ("No, Alex, you have to squeeze the heart, this cell needs food!"). When they spilled, I asked what it meant when blood comes out of the vessels where it is supposed to stay, and Anya chirped, "It's an owie!" so we talked about how the spilled "blood" in the pan was a bruise- still in our imaginary giant's body but not in the vessels where it should be.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1qXqUQ3bQ28/Tos5-hkLfGI/AAAAAAAAAQo/2ab2_PKHo8o/s1600/circulation+alex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1qXqUQ3bQ28/Tos5-hkLfGI/AAAAAAAAAQo/2ab2_PKHo8o/s320/circulation+alex.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>After about a 45 minutes of playing with the project, we cleaned up and I briefly mentioned that the when the heart squeezes it makes a noise, which is the lub-dub we heard with the stethoscope that morning. I asked if they remembered the other two sounds we heard (they did) and introduced the idea that the lung and belly sounds are related to air and food, &nbsp;two things that blood transports to the cells. We haven't started on those two yet, but I felt pretty good about all the stuff we learned about the circulatory system as a good lead in to digestion and respiratory.<br /><br />All in all, it's been an amazing two days of working with the kids on some stuff that could have been overwhelming. I'm in awe of their minds, and how they are constantly learning and investigating, and the more&nbsp;opportunities&nbsp;I provide, the more connections they make.Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-86051552296039041472011-10-03T14:20:00.001-05:002011-10-03T14:20:41.845-05:00A Big Stick, Mama, That'll Blow Your Mind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kvHUKqTyecE/TooKqqIPQyI/AAAAAAAAAQc/sSXqpI2BvF0/s1600/serious+vanilla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kvHUKqTyecE/TooKqqIPQyI/AAAAAAAAAQc/sSXqpI2BvF0/s320/serious+vanilla.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>We got this crazy wonderful machine: it turns dairy products into delicious treats. Oh, how I love you ice cream machine!<br /><br />First recipe I picked up off a message board and I chose because it had two ingredients and was relatively healthy and I could whip it up with the kids without residual guilt (OMFGCHILDHOODOBESITY! DON'TLETTHEMEATSUGARANDOHMYLORDINHEAVENTHEFAT! THEFAAAAA-AAAAT!!!1!)<br /><br />Orange Julius FroYo<br />1 quart of lowfat vanilla yogurt<br />1 regular sized container of orange juice concentrate, thawed<br />a glug or two of vanilla extract<br /><br /><br /><ol><li>Dump the yogurt in a large bowl, add the OJ and vanilla, stir till combined.</li><li>With the machine assembled and running, pour the mixture in.</li><li>Check in 20 minutes or so to see if it is churned enough for you. Freeze for an hour or two if you like your FroYo harder.</li></ol><div>This was a huge hit with the kids, though Luke found it overly tart. I think it would be better with about 1/2-3/4 of the OJ added, or with something like an OJ-Banana or Strawberry-Banana blend. Or that tropical juice with passionfruit, that would be way tasty for something so easy.</div><div><br /></div><div>But, really, did I get an ice cream maker for healthy frozen treats? Absolutely not.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm a little afraid of the madness I will create if left to my own devices, some sort of chocolate peanut butter brownie toasted almond sweet cream&nbsp;concoction, so I asked Luke what sort of ice cream he'd like. His reply, "Caramel Swirl"</div><div><br /></div><div>Caramel Swirl. We need a good vanilla base, not of the heavy, egg-y sort. And while a quick check of online recipes suggested just swirling in some jarred caramel topping, that sounds so dull, so canned, like the way all budget restaurants all taste like the same Sysco ingredients cooked in the same way. And caramel is so deliciously easy!</div><div><br /></div><div>Caramel for Swirling or Topping:</div><div>3/4 cup white sugar (though I plan to try brown sugar next time)</div><div>1/4 cup water.</div><div>1/8 teaspoon sea salt - optional and adjustable- add less or a pinch of regular salt for a more traditional caramel, add more for a truly salty caramel, which is so yummy I dream of it.</div><div>1/2-1cup heavy cream</div><div>a couple glugs of vanilla extract</div><div><br /></div><div><ol><li>Mix ingredients in a small heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Mixture will eventually begin to boil and bubble, allow it to cook at this rate, watching it closely for changes in color. You want a nice deep amber color- pale like butter will taste insipid, like plain simple syrup, too dark like coffee will taste burnt. Watch closely because it can go from butter- to coffee-colored&nbsp;</li><li>Remove from heat and gently, carefully, pour in your heavy cream. Be prepared, it let loose an explosion of steam and furious boiling and the caramel will go through a series of alchemical changes, solid, liquid, gaseous, it will seem as though you have conjured a djinni &nbsp;in your saucepan, but things will settle down after some stirring. I suggest a long handled solid mixing spoon for this, and watch out for your fingers and the explosion of steam!&nbsp;</li><li>Add cream till you think you have a consistency that works for you- be aware that the caramel will get harder as it cools, if you find that it is too hard and chewy (or like a hard candy!), simply warm it over low heat with lots of stirring and add more cream- but remember to go slow, you can't make it less runny if you add too much! Let cool to room temperature before adding to ice cream if you are planning to swirl, use while still warm for a topping.</li></ol></div><div><br /></div><div>Next: Ice Cream. I used Alton Brown's Serious Vanilla as a base, though I made some changes and was very pleased with the results.</div><div><br /></div><div>2 cups half and half</div><div>1 cup heavy cream</div><div>1/2-3/4 cup sugar</div><div>1/8 teaspoon salt</div><div>1 vanilla bean&nbsp;</div><div><ol><li>Combine first four ingredients in a heavy saucepan over medium heat.</li><li>Split the vanilla bean lengthwise, and scrape out the pulp with a spoon. Add pulp and beans to the saucepan.</li><li>Allow the mixture to come to a simmer- not a full boil, just till you see the very first tiny bubbles start to surface. Remove from heat and chill. The flavors will meld nicely if you let it chill for a full 24 hours, but it will still be yummy even if you just let it cool the bare minimum of time. It does need to be very cold, or else the ice cream won't freeze properly in the machine.</li><li>Turn on your machine and pour the liquid in while it is churning (otherwise it will freeze to the sides and the motor won't be able to churn properly). Check back in 20 minutes or so and it should be setting up nicely. you can keep churning for a while longer, or go on from here. the ice cream will be soft serve consistency at this stage.</li><li>With the machine still churning, pour in the caramel in in a steady stream, but don't churn for too long. Working quickly, turn off the machine and transfer the ice cream to a sealable container- you don't want to so thoroughly mix the caramel in that it become caramel ice cream rather than caramel swirl; you also don't want the ice cream to linger in the frozen bowl form the machine, or it will freeze hard to the sides.</li><li>Try some delicious ice cream right now, or leave it to harden up in the freezer if you prefer.</li></ol></div>Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-41701716000524204932010-03-28T18:49:00.000-05:002011-10-04T13:53:58.915-05:00Wonder Mom Powers Activate!Anya was racing through the house, clambering onto our bed and jumping as high as she could shouting, "Super Anya!" and Alex, laughing joyously, joined her, exclaiming, "Super Alex!"<br /><br />I knew that they needed superhero capes as soon as possible.<br /><br />Georgia over at <a href="http://pukingpastilles.com/">Puking Pastilles</a> has a fantastic <a href="http://pukingpastilles.com/?p=57">tutorial</a> on how to make reversible capes for your little superheroes. I let the kids pick their favorite colors and drew up a simple "A" logo for them (though she has templates for Superman, Batman, Obama, and a couple of Superwhy! characters on her site). I picked up less than $10 of materials from the fabric store (and could have gotten away with less if I had been more organized about what felt and fusible webbing I already had in the Horrible Mess Craft Box). The whole project probably took less than 2 hours of working time, including the time it took me to try to remember how to use my sewing machine. And honestly, you could hand stitch it pretty easily. I played it fast and loose with the pattern and just used her tutorial as a guide, then drew up a pattern on a big piece of paper from the kids' easel, but you can also check out her <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/pukingpastilles">etsy store</a> and buy a pdf of the exact pattern with three sizes.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/S6_q_B33RSI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/_WVh9RY2Rf0/s1600/capes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/S6_q_B33RSI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/_WVh9RY2Rf0/s320/capes.JPG" /></a></div><br /><br />They've been wearing the capes constantly since I finished them, and the experience has re-inspired me to make more awesome stuff for imaginative play. Anyone have any favorite ideas?Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-35573920938400856992010-03-21T08:50:00.009-05:002011-10-04T13:57:31.268-05:00To All the Roller Girls I've Loved...I was inspired by a friend's FB post about <a href="http://zubegirl.blogspot.com/2010/03/flaming-ass.html">getting reacquainted with one's neglected blog</a>, and although I've posted and raved all over these Internetz about my awesome roller girl, I'm going to do it here too.<br /><br />Anya dragged out my old rainbow roller skates and with a delighted giggle and a wave of a dismissive hand when I cautioned her to be careful, balanced on one foot and climbed into the huge old things. Her arms out for balance and nary a stumble, she roll-walked across the living room, singing out, "Roller skates! Roller skates!" Here's some shots of her during the 45 minutes of roller skating that ensued- for those of you with toddlers, marvel at 45 minutes of ANYTHING!<br /><br /><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5FX-nYFWExc&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5FX-nYFWExc&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />Sure it's cool, and we always knew she was a crazy-coordinated little monkey, but her joy in those roller skates stirs a crazy happiness in me. <br /><br />I remember my first pair of skates, black with purple laces, wheels and stoppers, so beautiful they made my heart hurt a little. My older sister who was the sun and the moon of my universe skated all the way to Berkeley High, speeding down from the North Berkeley hills and coasting all the way there. I skated in circles around the house, waiting for her to get home, hoping she would let me into her room and brush my hair and braid it so tight it brought tears to my eyes and let me watch her peer into the mirror critically and try on on earrings from her crazy beaded, feathery collection. She used to string little rubber animals at the end of 2 inch long beaded strands dangling from hooks and wear them in her ears and she was so cool and so beautiful I felt the way I did when I looked at my new black and purple roller skates. <br /><br />While I waited for her to get home I would skate in circles on the hardwood floors of our big old house, my father was "taking a nap", sleeping off the Xanax and the crushing depression and the liquor and the pain and the rage; my mother was typing, always typing, clinical journal articles about the horrors of how people rule and crush and govern one another, books and papers always spread out around her like a fortress, she murmured, "You'd think it was boring. You wouldn't understand." when I skate up to her hopefully questioning. So I skated in lonely circles, living room to dining room to hallway to living room, my cool purple wheels thrumming against the floor and echoing through the wide cold house. My sister is breathless when she flies into the house, and she smells like cocoa butter and smoke and warmth. She admires my purple and black skates and notices my purple shirt and tells me to hold still while she yanks on my hair to pull it out of its bedraggled ponytail. I follow her wherever she goes and she is laughing on the phone and I hope that means that her friends are coming over, Carolyn has a voice and laugh that make the sun shine and Molly is so kind and beautiful I have suspected that she is actually one of the Greek goddesses we learned about, walking the earth in mortal form. But this time my sister is getting ready to leave, and I think about sneaking into her room after she's gone, weighing the heady bliss of sitting at her mirror opening the cocoa butter and inhaling the deep sweet smell while pretending to wear the dangly pig earrings that I covet, weighing that potential joy against the risk of making her angry and being shut out of her presence if she catches me. When she tries to leave the house I sit on her foot and wrap my arms around her leg and make her drag me to the door while I plead with her to stay. She alternates between guilty apologies and irritated frustration and finally pries me off. So I sit on the floor and lace my skates tight and start skating in slow circles around the empty house.Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-50387515272573101832010-02-10T13:29:00.002-06:002010-03-15T13:53:55.322-05:00Snow Days CookingLong days since I was here last. It's been snowing here and I am overwhelmed by the thought of writing about parenting my two year olds. I will ease my way back by writing what is easy and comes naturally, in the warmth of the kitchen.<br /><br />South American Pork and Tomatillo Stew has become one of my favorites recently. It is a lovely dish when you are puttering at home, with no intense periods of prep work, just occasional check-ins of the stew/braise. You can make it without the meat and with veggie broth if you are serving vegetarian or with chicken if you do not eat pork.<br /><br />Put your heaviest dutch oven over medium-high heat and add just a tiny bit of oil (depending, of course on what sort of pan you are using). I use a pork loin, a couple of pounds, though you could easily use a cheaper cut of meat like the butt/shoulder I just don't like the extra fat and connective tissue, and cut it into rough 1-inch cubes. Season with salt and pepper and toss into the pan, taking care to only fill the surface of the pan about 2/3 of the way so that the meat will brown nicely. If it is overcrowded the meat will steam and boil in liquid released, and will not get the browned slightly crusted exterior we want. Let the meat brown on all sides, then remove it to a large bowl while you brown the remaining batches. <br /><br />While the meat browns (and it will brown better if you don't fuss with it. If you are the fussing type, these tasks will give you something to do so you aren't so tempted!). Chop an onion, I prefer sweet Vidalia onions, but a plain brown onion is fine. Take a dozen or so <a href="http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Produce-638/tomatillos.aspx">tomatillos</a> and husk them. I like to rinse them under hot water to remove the husks, as there is a sticky-waxy coating on the skin that cna be a pain. Chop them into chunks once they are husked. Press some garlic, a clove or two or four, depending on your tastes. You can chop some tomatoes or used canned diced (make sure they have no added spices). If you like spicy, seed and mince a jalepeno or other hot pepper. All of these are the for the next round of browning.<br /><br />Transfer the browned meat to a bowl, add a swirl of oil to the pan and add the vegetables. You can build a slightly tastier version by adding the tomatillos first, letting them brown slightly, adding the onions and letting them brown slightly, then adding the garlic and pepper for 30-60 seconds before adding the tomatoes, but if you are rushed or there are children hollering or deadlines to be made or you just can't be bothered for multiple steps you can just add them all together. Let them cook for a while till the onions are soft and the flavors have melded- this is forgiving, 5 minutes will be fine, but 15 minutes won't hurt.<br /><br />Next pour about 1/2 to 3/4 of a beer in - I've tried all sorts, use what you have and experiment! Then add a cup of orange juice and a cup or so of chicken broth. It's very easy to make and freeze homemade chicken stock, but Swanson's Low Sodium Chicken Broth in aseptic packaging is good too. Then add the pork back in and some salt and pepper- not too much salt, because the beans will add salt at the end, but you want a bit to flavor the meat as it stews.<br /><br />Cover and cook on low for about 1.5 hours. Longer is okay. Forgiving.<br /><br />While the stew is working its magic, you can start preparing the rest of the stuff to go along with it. I usually serve this with basmati rice (not authentic, but the nutty taste of basmati is just delicious with these flavors); a bunch of add-ins the eat along with the stew: sliced avocado, roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and fried plantains or bananas. On the side I like to make an orange and red onion salad. I find that basmati is best when sauteed in a bit of butter and pressed garlic, then add water and salt and cover first with a clean kitchen towel and then with the pot cover (to soak up the steam so that it doesn't condense on the bottom of the kid and drop back down, which will encourage stickiness). For the add-ins just slice the avocado and drizzle with lime juice and salt, and buy your pepitas already roasted and salted. For the salad, slice the oranges and red onions into thin rounds and dress with a bit of olive oil, lime juice and salt and pepper. Chop some cilantro to add to any of it for those who like it- I love it, but some people think it tastes soapy and they won't like the dish if even a bit is added. Slice the plantains or bananas the long way about 1/4- 1/2 inch thick, pop a mixture of butter and oil into a pan and add the slices when the butter is done foaming, cook till you get a nice deep caramel brown color. You can dust with a bit of sugar and salt for an extra bang if you like. Do the avocado at the last minute, right before serving since it will go brown. But let's get back to the last part of the stew before I get any farther ahead of myself.<br /><br />Check the meat. When you poke a fork into it does it almost fall apart into separate pieces? If not let it cook some more, with the lid off now to evaporate some of the water and concentrate the flavors. If it is tender, give the broth a taste. Is it intense and delicious or is it a bit watery? Cook with the lid off for a bit. Add a can of black beans with their liquid and try again. Adjust your seasonings: for flat tastes try adding salt, for muddy tastes you can add a bit of lemon juice, for watery tastes you can let it get more concentrated with longer cooking. <br /><br />Serve the stew over the rice and encourage your eaters to try the add-ins. A perfect bit is one that combines the tender pork, a nutty crunch of pepita, the rich smooth avocado, and the intense broth soaked rice and maybe a little burst of orange from the salad. Yum.Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-30334706680766687172009-04-17T20:26:00.004-05:002009-04-17T21:03:08.012-05:00You thought you'd find my weak spot, but still, you failedWhy is that every time I check my blog it has been a month since I last posted? Where is the time going? <br /><br />Luke started his own business this month, and it is brilliant and exciting and scary. it also means he gets up earlier, goes to work after the kids are asleep (but comes home every single night without fail for dinner and bathtime and putting Alex to bed because he is a superhero) and he has to carry three cell phones at all times and the motherfuckers go off at all times of day and night. Anya and Alex take serious issue with this bogarting of beloved cell phones. Sometimes when they are sobbing and grasping at his pants in a vain effort to liberate one of the cornucopia of phones, Anya shoots me a look as if to say, "Do you see this? Why the hell do I have to share if Daddy is allowed to flagrantly keep all the good phones to himself? WTF, mom, W.T.F.?"<br /><br />The children were replaced by small demons this morning and I was seriously contemplating leaving them out for the Salvation Army to pick up. As Alex writhed and arched and shook his head violently screaming for forty-five minutes because I could not put his yellow winter jacket on over his red winter jacket, I kept repeating to myself "This is the worst day of my whole life. Therefore it must get better." Probably not technically true, but it got me through the morning. I also fell back on my mantra from the old days of Worcester, "If I cannot defeat this, how will I ever defeat Bane?" Man, as soon as the kids are old enough, I'm going to start reading them Batman comics for bedtime stories!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/Sekzc0mjqBI/AAAAAAAAAGk/5sXz_4buZFs/s1600-h/stylin+in+the+dollar+store.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/Sekzc0mjqBI/AAAAAAAAAGk/5sXz_4buZFs/s320/stylin+in+the+dollar+store.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325844604592039954" /></a><br />Anya had a rockstar-Britney-Lohan moment in the dollar store the other day. <br /><br />And Alex is showing his Yooper heritage.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/Sek0KJ011RI/AAAAAAAAAGs/nQdbuaZlXlI/s1600-h/little+yooper.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/Sek0KJ011RI/AAAAAAAAAGs/nQdbuaZlXlI/s320/little+yooper.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325845383383209234" /></a>Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-17486660516941186382009-03-26T19:52:00.009-05:002009-03-26T20:33:58.041-05:00Spring WatersSpring is finally sort of here, and the world is huge and wonderful and full of dogs and squirrels and sticks to taste and tree roots to trip over.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/Scwon2aEs4I/AAAAAAAAAF8/Qdt04mC7N-s/s1600-h/big+blue+ball.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/Scwon2aEs4I/AAAAAAAAAF8/Qdt04mC7N-s/s320/big+blue+ball.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317669925102596994" border="0" /></a> Alex and Anya would spend all day outside if they could, and if we had some way to fence in our land, I might let them, but for now they both want to play with a large not-friendly dogs behind and invisible fence next door, or go run across the street to play with the other pack of large dogs owned by a not-friendly neighbor, or run down the street to see their best friend Finn's very very friendly dog Casey.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/ScwpITj6b6I/AAAAAAAAAGE/y7qPuBl1w2Y/s1600-h/IMG_5521.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/ScwpITj6b6I/AAAAAAAAAGE/y7qPuBl1w2Y/s320/IMG_5521.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317670482684309410" border="0" /></a><br />Notice a theme? We're thinking about when we could get a dog of our own. I've been waiting since I was 19 to get one, waiting till I thought I could provide a good home, till I could be the kind of dog owner that I wanted to be. I'm so close I can taste it!<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/ScwqPETIdBI/AAAAAAAAAGM/oG_JdJAmhJw/s1600-h/like+father+like+son.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/ScwqPETIdBI/AAAAAAAAAGM/oG_JdJAmhJw/s320/like+father+like+son.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317671698358105106" border="0" /></a><br />Luke has become the sun and the moon and the shining stars in Alex's world. When Luke calls during the day, I hold the phone to Alex's ear and a look of pure joy sweeps across his face, he turns to look into the speaker and caresses it lovingly, sometimes planting a kiss on it, and says in an awe-filled voice, "Hi, Dada!"<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/ScwrhQHFRvI/AAAAAAAAAGU/9bGi2pq-qm0/s1600-h/anya+ed.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/ScwrhQHFRvI/AAAAAAAAAGU/9bGi2pq-qm0/s320/anya+ed.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317673110278063858" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Anya is fearless as ever, and crinkles her nose when she smiles, and smiles when she finally scales the dining room table, the stack of crates designed to thwart her, every chair in the house, the bookcase. She belly laughs and giggles and tickles her brother and bowls people and pets over with her enthusiastic hugs and kisses. She amazes me.<br /><br />And Luke. Luke makes me happier and stronger every single day. I don't think I even imagined that someone as strong and amazing and loving could exist till I knew him. I am so very lucky.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/ScwsKSsWZRI/AAAAAAAAAGc/1Tj7X_gberw/s1600-h/luke+bwedit2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hh7u0nVYjlk/ScwsKSsWZRI/AAAAAAAAAGc/1Tj7X_gberw/s320/luke+bwedit2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317673815345882386" border="0" /></a>Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-6748463139294214552009-03-08T16:51:00.002-05:002009-03-08T16:54:22.728-05:00I'm the Osirus of this shit!My greatest victory of the day was besting Luke in Rock, Paper, Scissors when changing Alex's rank diaper was at stake.<br /><br />Go me!Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-25449619700186505632008-12-22T21:37:00.002-06:002008-12-22T21:45:09.154-06:00Full of lightning victoriesMy main man took his very first step yesterday, and mastered a whole several feet of pure upright motion today.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nYY8GL9Yuqc&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nYY8GL9Yuqc&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />He's got these crazy curls on his head, little ringlets that bobble near his ears. And he gets overwhelmed with excitement to see people sometimes, just laughs hysterically while rolling his face across whatever body part of yours he can get to while making this funny open-mouthed, "Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!", and if you smile or make funny noises back at him he will look up and beam then lean down and give you a little nip, like a cat who's butt has been scratched just right for a moment too long. He's pretty rad, if I do say so myself.Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-74615391801863988682008-12-09T12:30:00.002-06:002008-12-09T12:36:17.009-06:00The Lone Ranger, code red, danger!We got a rad new video camera thanks to my always tech-savvy dad. I took this:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZUVjWu81oGk&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZUVjWu81oGk&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span>on the same day that Anya:<br />1. Busted through the babyproofing to get into the forbidden closet.<br />2. Put not one but two quarter-sized tokens in her mouth within 2 seconds of entering the forbidden closet.<br />3. Climbed over different babyproofing surrounding a planter and put a fistful of potting soil in her mouth.<br />4. Called 911, which I discovered when the village polics showed up at my door.</span>Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7176199468057908564.post-78915216522198755102008-11-21T12:47:00.004-06:002008-11-21T12:56:17.613-06:00Demonstrate walkin on hot coal, in ritualsMy baby girl can <span style="font-style: italic;">walk</span>!<br /><br /><br /><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyqnVun0v7mRjOIwQE0g1FqKFwAShmqpF-q8Yy4OUWT23iGE6vjwAgMh8fxGm36_gCKgMuVeH5xo_qW56YLvA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /><br /><br />She started about three weeks ago, because she is badass. Alex finally started crawling about a week before that, so, you know, she had to move on to something new.Darcy Geddeshttps://plus.google.com/114002030849606663792noreply@blogger.com2